How Should You Really View Zillow?

As we all know, Zillow is a real estate website where you can find homes for sale as well as those that have previously sold. It’s a great place to visit before reaching out to a real estate agent and moving forward with your buying or selling plans. Not all homes on Zillow are available for sale, though, and that brings us to today’s topic: Zillow pre-foreclosures and how they’re a perfect encapsulation of why you can’t fully trust Zillow. 

With pre-foreclosure homes, the foreclosure process has started but the property isn’t bank-owned yet. With such low inventory in our current market and homes not being listed as feverishly as before, buyers are looking everywhere they can to find the right home. Sometimes they’ll visit Zillow, see a home they like, and give us a call only to find out that the home is a pre-foreclosure. 

So beware: Zillow is a great tool, but make sure you talk to a real estate agent before using it to pursue your real estate goals, whether you’re a buyer or seller. If you’re a buyer, feel free to send us a link to the home you want and we’ll do some research, and find out whether it’s actually for sale to the general public or already under contract. Most of the time, Zillow pre-foreclosures are only available for cash, and you have to go to the home’s auction site to purchase it.

If you’re a seller, you might be tempted to use Zillow’s Zestimates to find comparable sales, but keep in mind that these Zestimates can be way off. For example, based on their Zestimates, Zillow might say you can sell your home for $200,000, but if your agent pulls actual comps, they could find out you can sell for as much as $225,000. That’s $25,000 you’d be leaving on the table by basing your pricing strategy on a Zestimate. 

Once again, it’s a great starting place, but if you’re ready to buy or sell a home, reach out to a trusted real estate team (preferably us) so you get the most accurate information. As we like to say, Zillow’s never been inside your home; we agents can look inside your home and come up with an accurate price tag for it. 

If you have questions about Zillow or any real estate topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to help you.