As South Lake Tahoe Realtors, we have heard the following SO many times from new seller’s: “Well, Zillow said my house was worth this much”. Inside, I think every agent groans a little. If they happen to not keep the groan silent, please know it has nothing to do with you and more to do with their frustration with Zillow. After all, Zillow is one of the first sites people visit when searching for South Lake Tahoe real estate. These “Zestimates” don’t take in actual facts about the property as well as actual comparables in the neighborhood. In fact, South Lake Tahoe real estate agents spend quite a bit of time discussing why sites like Zillow are not accurate when it comes to pricing properties for sale in Lake Tahoe. Sometimes, Realtors are even getting push back from clients that would rather believe a website over a long time professional that is well educated on current (and local) market conditions. You have to remember, websites and their AVMs (Automated Valuation Models) are not touring your home. They do not know the upgrades that you have made or additional square feet you added on. Further more, they don’t know what upgrades your neighbor did, or didn’t do. Sure these sites can pull some information that allow them to guess as to what your South Lake Tahoe real estate could sell for, but they won’t be able to pull all the facts. As a result, their idea of what your Lake Tahoe real estate should sell for is off.  So how off are the Zillow “Zestimates”, exactly? Well, in the case of Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, it is off by about $700,000. So what went wrong? Well, the pricing was “estimated” by an algorithm, not an actual Real Estate professional. If you really want to find out what your home is worth, give us a call. We’d be happy to do a market analysis for you!
