Just out of curiosity, did you know that if you are the homeowner, you can actually change information about your own house on Zillow? I currently live in a home that is tax assessed as a three-bedroom house, even though there are technically four bedrooms. I do not know if the permits were pulled for it to be built as a fourth bedroom, or if it is classified as a mother-in-law suite since it has its own bathroom and exit. (I inherited it, so I did not have to pull title paperwork and research with the city how the fourth bedroom is labeled.) However, the city does not have it assessed as four bedrooms. As a four bedroom, two and one half bath home, 1434 sq. ft., and a one car detached garage, Zillow currently has it at $176,193. If I wait a year to list it, Zillow estimates I could list it at $184,421. It shows me properties that sold in the neighborhood to support their pricing. However, all of the properties they show sold over three months ago, and up to 10 months ago. If you pay attention to real estate, the market in Milwaukee, Wisconsin shifts with the seasons. What sold 4 months ago does not apply to the current market value, let alone 10 months ago.
The city has the house assessed at $146,600. Right now, city assessments are lower than what homes are selling for.
I entered the following information into my search:
0.5 mile range of my house
80% - 120% of the square footage of my home
Must have at least three bedrooms
Must be active on the market or sold within the past three months
This basic information turned up six properties.
From there, I adjusted the price by $10,000 per bedroom, $5,000 per full bathroom, $3,000 per half bathroom, and $100 per square foot. I also have access to all of the photos from the homes that sold to make a visual comparison of the interior of the properties. Through running the program, visually inspecting the properties, and knowing the market, it is suggested to list my house for $191,060 with the low side of the range being $164,600 and the high side of the range being $223,300.
Zillow doesn't know if I have granite counter tops, hard wood flooring, and modern light fixtures. They also don't know if I have five different types of flooring in my house that do not go together and haven't updated the house since it was built back in 1960. Either way, the Zillow price is still quite a bit less than what I was able to come up with by manually finding comparable properties in my neighborhood either active or sold within the past three months.
The flip side, a seller wanted to list their home at $315,000 because that was what Zillow supported. The agent involved felt that was too high to list, but the seller insisted. The home was gorgeous and attracted several potential buyers, but they all (including their agents) provided feedback that they felt the property was overpriced. I offered to look at the property and assess the value as well since the agent is a friend of mine and had a difficult time convincing his sellers that the property was overpriced. Zillow has since changed their "zestimate" to $304,999, but even with my search, I was only able to come up with a fair price of $290,000. In fact, there was almost an identical home in size and interior that sold for $290,000 down the street from them just a month earlier. The property is currently down to $300,000, but it has been sitting on the market for 52 days now.
Although the market is still strong for sellers, you should still be seeing offers come in within two weeks and definitely within 10 showings. As an agent, my first response to seeing the property on the market that long is that it is either overpriced or there is something wrong with the property. That is why it is so important to really trust your agent when they provide you an estimate of what your home is worth. I will also tell you that I am not an agent to boss you around or offend you. I will agree to list it at your price if you think my assessment is low, but if it doesn't get an offer within the first two weeks, or there just aren't a lot of showings those first two weeks, then I write it into the contract to lower the price by a specific amount. I want you to get the best possible offer for your home, but I also want to make sure the property will appraise out by the bank. If it doesn't, then you will either have to lower the price anyway, or you will have to state that the buyer will have to bring additional cash to closing in order to satisfy the financing requirement and meet your purchase price.
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