Latest BiggerPockets Article: Can Zillow Be Trusted?

So after a long hiatus, I am back to writing for BiggerPockets. My latest article asks whether or not you can trust the Zestimate that Zillow provides for home values. 

My answer: For the most part, no.

Zillow releases data saying they are very accurate, but my take, based off of several examples I've seen including one recent one in particular is that they are piggybacking off of list prices, which as of today, are usually pretty close to sales prices:

As an example, we just sold a small two-bedroom home. We ended up going over budget on the rehab and therefore failed to “BRRRR out.” The Zestimate was at $83,500, but my valuation of the comparables made me believe it was worth more.
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We listed it for $94,900 and immediately the Zestimate jumped up to $96,100. Then, we sold it for $93,000.

Overall, I think Zestimates are a good way to get a ballpark idea of value. But they should never be relied. For the rest of my case, check out the article.