Lisa H Thomas

Hi Cate: I'm a country property specialist in your area and will be happy to help you with this if you give me the address & some particulars. It's not so easy to figure this out for yourself via MLS and data is just data until someone knows how to interpret it. - Thu Apr 17 2008, 08:18

Hi Debbie:

That's a great question and I hear it alot. I'm very familiar with the Sebastopol market and the way that Zillow forms it's Z-estimates. This is done with complex algorithms that take account not only of tax records but of many, many other factors including past area sales, projected market movements, and many more. In my experience, Zillow is increasingly improving in its accuracy but it's still quite spotty. The main problem with it at the moment is that is looks BACKWARD not forward. With the instabiity in our local market and the recent downward trend, Zillow is having a hard type giving good results on CURRENT market values.

Furthermore, if you live on a tract subdivision type of house where most of the other homes in the neighborhood are very similar, you will get a better opinion of value than if your property is unique in some way.

I specialize in Country Property, which are very popular in Sebastopol. Zillow is very rarely accurate within even 10% on these types of properties.

The best way to determine your homes current market value is to either have it appraised or to ask a competent realtor to give you a comparative market analysis. Most good agents, myself included, will do this for you at no charge. - Thu Apr 17 2008, 08:15