patrick.net
An Antidote to Corporate Media
1,257,505 comments by 15,008 users - Rin, WookieMan online now
invite responseComments 1 - 8 of 8 Search these comments
This is old news and posted on Patrick.net about two weeks ago http://patrick.net/?p=642373
Katy Perry
2011 Mar 21, 3:58am
They make it up I think. I pay $1650 rent. Zillow says it $2050 $400 off (20ish percent)
Can any other renters please comment.
Zillow will always try and make Borrowing Money (mortgage) look better than renting the House I think. They know what side their bread is buttered on IMO.
The only info I find helpful on Zillow is Yellow house Sold price and date. all else is total BS. But I would imagine they even goose the house sold price too.
(Edit) I can see from the last thread that Landlords think Zillow just about nailed it.
Renters please comment.
pkowen
2011 Mar 21, 5:13am
In my neighborhood, it's all over the place. As I've always said, Zillow's attempt at pricing (house price now rents too) is a nice idea, but they just don't get the right answers. When they do it's more coincidence than anything. As the bubble was bursting, they were ridiculously off, to the point that the pulled all their history at one point and "re-did the algorithm". Again, I like the idea but whatever they are doing to calculate, it's way off.
Any seller or landlord who uses it as a reference to justify a price is just plain wrong (and I'd tell them so). Same goes for renters or buyers. It's not like cars, NADA guide, etc. I used to use NADA for used cars because that's what banks used to determine loan value.
I picked a few places in my n'hood and in the past 5-6 months I see rentals varying by 25% or more. That's not reality.
I wonder if this self reported or what. The rentals I charge are 1495, 1375, and 1050. Zillow reports as 1514, 1278, and not listed.
pkowen
2011 Mar 21, 6:58am
I think they scrape a lot of data and then attempt to do some sort of averaging. Thing is, in places like the SFBA historical data is completely whacky and I think new data will continue to be 'unstable'.
In fairness to Zillow, I would guess this works in more stable markets. It's probably accurate in Iowa (are they even present there?).
Katy Perry
2011 Mar 21, 8:14am
Zillow just another NAR tool to be manipulated in the future. I'll just wait for the news about it.
pkowen
2011 Mar 21, 8:25am
Yes, beware the news, report, or argument that starts with, "According to Zillow ... "
Mark_LA
2011 Mar 21, 9:28am
Katy Perry
Befriend | Ignore
Posts: 7
Comments: 224
Beverly Hills, CAI pay $1650 rent.
Do you live in The Slums of Beverly Hills? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120831/
So if you click on a property, it'll tell you that approximate mortgage you'll be paying and it'll also list the approximate rent the property would get. I wonder where they get this data. Anyone know?
#housing