Chilled on Zillow : Somerset 08873

Somerset 08873

Feb. 12, 2008 - Chilled on Zillow

Accuracy of local data is problematic

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Zillow.com has come to Somerset, NJ...warts and all. I received an email today informing me the "Zillow® Buzz" got a makeover and that I should click the links to check out what's there for Franklin Township. Sadly, each of the direct links were dead.

There's been long standing criticism of Zillow regrading the site's "zestimate" of home values and incomplete or inaccurate "data". The critics still bear merit. A glaring example is the limited number of Franklin Towship listings.

More than two years ago Nicholas Carr wrote on his blog, Rough Type, "The data's not reliable. As soon as I got onto the site, I did what I'm sure millions of other people did yesterday: I zillowed my own home. The house description, alas, was way out of date. It didn't include an addition that we put on three years ago, which meant that the room count, bath count, and square footage were all off." I also love the comment on Valleywag.com; “The brilliant bit is that Zillow's best defense is, "Our system is inaccurate all over."

After reading today's email, of course, the first thing I did was to zillow my house too. In my case the information was woefully incomplete. All that is there is that my home is two stories with a one car garage and zestimates a value of $320,500. Strangely, my northern next door neighbor's home, which shares the same floor plan, is valued at $3,000 more. There are no exterior differences. My southern next door neighbor, who has one less bedroom, is valued at $6,500 more than my house! And, this discrepancy doesn't credit the added improvements made to my home including granite kitchen counters, a custom back splash and hardwood and marble floors.

All is not bad at zillow.com. The site offers some great resources for buyers and a few good "fear busters" for sellers. Zillow still secretly thrives on overconfident users.” All I can say is Caveat Emptor.

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Feb. 12, 2008 - RE: Chilled on Zillow

Posted by Drew Meyers from Zillow

Hey, it's Drew from Zillow. A couple things. 1st, sorry for the broken links -- I believe <a href="http://www.zillow.com/real-estate/NJ-Franklin">this is the correct link for Franklin</a>. I'll definitely pass this on to our e-mail team so we can diagnose what caused the broken links.

Our median margin of error <a href="http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageZestimateAccuracyNJ.htm">in Somerset county</a> is 8.2%, with 33% of zestimates falling within 5% of the sales price.

Our information comes from public records. Zestimates are based off of all the home data we have about YOUR house, along with sales trends within your given geographic area. The more data we have about a home, the more accurate the zestimate is likely to be. I believe that, in New Jersey, home facts such as beds, baths, and sq. footage are not included in the publicly available home facts -- as you can imagine, this makes computing zestimates more difficult than in counties where we have that information. I can't say without looking at the specific homes in question, but I imagine the differences in zestimates are a result of slightly differing tax assessed values or prior sales history on the homes.

One thing you can do is claim your home and edit (fill-in in your case) your home facts, but fair warning -- since we don't have many home facts in your county, there's a good chance updating your home facts won't significantly change your zestimate since our models won't have many other homes w/ home facts to compare it to in your area. However, updating your home facts will set the record straight for anyone who visits your home details page on zillow. Over time, as we get more updated home facts from agents and owners (over a million people have updated their home facts so far), our zestimate accuracy should improve.

Hope this helps.

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08873 is the Postal Code for Franklin Township in Somerset County, NJ and we love living here. Hi, I'm Mike Adams and this is a Real Estate blog For and About current and future residents of Franklin Township, also known as Somerset New Jersey. I would love to help you with your central NJ real estate needs. Just contact me via phone, my websites or email. I invite your comments and please visit Somerset 08873 often. Michael Adams CENTURY21 Our Town Realty 852 Easton Ave, Somerset, NJ 08873 Business: 732.828.3700 ext.306 Fax: 732.828.3913 mjadams@century21.com http://www.mjAdamsSellsHomes.com

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Feb. 12, 2008 - Chilled on Zillow

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