The Greatest Real Estate Tool Ever (Part 1)

For the past several months, I've been considering the pros and cons of selling my house and purchasing a less expensive property. My plan is to use my current substantial equity (resulting from the crazy 2004-2005 price increases) to buy down my mortgage in a new property that is less expensive to begin with, thereby doubly reducing my monthly mortgage expense. Since I have horses, my search for a new property will be slightly more complicated than the average buyer as I will need a home with acreage.



Early in my evaluation process, I discovered the single most amazing and useful real estate website I ever could have hoped for: Zillow.com. Before I tell you more about Zillow.com, let me assure you that I have absolutely no association with the website and have no financial incentive for telling you about their features. OK, with that fine print out of the way, get prepared to be blown away!

I first heard about Zillow.com on a popular cable business news show -- Your World with Neil Cavuto. Since the website was reviewed on such a high profile show, I decided to check it out and was very pleased to find that no registration is required! If you've ever tried to find web-based real estate tools, you know the most common model is a registration requirement (complete with phone number) before allowing you access to the online tools. Afterwards, you can expect repeated follow-up emails and phone calls from real estate agents looking for your business! Personally, I don't want an agent pushing me to act when I'm still in my decision-making stage, so I never register to use these tools. [Get a clue, agents... Most of us are onto your registration agenda!]

In contrast, Zillow.com is completely open for immediate and frequent use and requires no personal information to take advantage of the bountiful data they have compiled. Zillow.com's core functionality is to calculate accurate market price estimates for any address entered into the Zillow.com Zestimator. According to the website, a Zestimate is calculated using property tax records from the local tax assessor, combined with sales data drawn from recently completed home sales. The resulting Zestimate is an amazing array of information for the individual property that pops out of the Zestimator, including:

v  Current Zestimate (estimated market price, including a predicted price range surrounding the Zestimate);

v  Property Details (no. of bedrooms, no. of bathrooms, square footage, lot size, year built);

v  Satellite Map (shows general neighborhood, streets, and Zestimate prices/ property details for all neighboring properties); and

v  Recent Comparable Sales (in table form, shows comparable prices, date of sale, square footage, lot size, and year built).

I know the true depth of information and value of a Zestimate might be hard to visualize until you've visited Zillow.com, but let me describe how I used it just this morning. Earlier today, I wanted to verify what the sales price for my current home might look like, so I typed my address and zip code into the Zestimator. The software thought for a few seconds, and then my Zestimate popped up. My Zestimate included details about my property, a Satellite map showing my property, and a table of "comps" (recent comparable home sales) used in calculating my property's value. Just for fun, I noticed the satellite map showed traces of my horses in their corrals due to the quality of the satellite imagery!

While I'll tell you a little bit more about my home's Zestimate in Part 2 of this entry, I want to focus now on the neighborhood satellite map and how fabulous it is! With each address you plug into the Zestimator, you'll get a satellite map showing the specific property and the surrounding neighborhood properties. Each property in the neighborhood has a little blue diamond over it and, with a quick click, a mini-window will pop open showing the Zestimate (price) and property details (square footage, etc.) for that specific property. In a matter of seconds, I was able to pop-up details on homes surrounding me for a few blocks in all directions to see how prices were affected by square footage, age of home, etc. Trust me, I now know what square footage is going for in this community!

In Part 2 of this entry, I'll describe how a Zestimate can be fine-tuned to present very accurate price estimates for a specific property, and in Part 3 of this entry, I'll review how Zillow.com can be of enormous value to home buyers, plus I'll mention a few of the limitations in Zillow's functionality. Until then, don't hesitate to visit Zillow.com at the link provided above to check it out for yourself!