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JF Sellsius makes a good point in his comment on yesterday's Zillow post about how Zestimates actually provide brokers more utility than the consumer because they use the Zestimate as a baseline and incorporate the unZillowable factors that current comps and visuals provide. *(check comments for clarification...)
The Ultimate Zillow Poll at sellsius reveals Home buyers and sellers don't trust the Zestimate itself and furthermore they see the realtor as the fine tuner and won't bypass them.
Once completed, the Ultimate Zillow Poll data should provide ammunition for the Zillow blog - realtors will be relieved and start to see and accept Zillow as a "partner". I'm sure Zillow management understands that the Zestimate itself will likely never be universally accepted at face value, and they have wisely positioned their macroscopic analytical products to inspire awe from the masses.
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A bit of comment clarification, if I may.
The overall point of my comment was that data (from one or more sources), COUPLED WITH visual inspection will probably get you closer to value than data alone. And a Zestimate is data alone. Visual inspection uncovers "unzillowables" either plus or minus. (an unzillowable in not always a negative factor, but rather one that affects price positively or negatively). I suggested that experienced local professionals are better equipped to factor in the unzillowables.
Also, I suggested that, provided the data in the zestimate was fresh & accurate, brokers could use it as one more source of data, not the only source.
I did NOT say that an agent would use the Zestimate as a BASELINE value, which implies (a) that the data is de facto fresh & accurate and (b)that it sets a value one must work UP from. So this point must be made CLEAR.
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Thanks for the clarification jf... I agree with you... we're not too far off in the interpretation... I don't consider the Zestimate to be any kind of defacto standard... your poll confirms this. I guess the word "baseline" was misused... we know brokers use a variety of sources for a CMA.
--pk
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