I agree with Tim, Broderick. As a licensed realtor/investor myself it always tickles me to hear people use Zillow/Trulia/Redfin as their basis. I like them, didn't understand why the values were such on the houses. Over time they are getting more accurate, but they leave a lot of room for themselves. It's not uncommon to see Zestimates range from 70k-250k on a particular house - it's crazy. Another part of the problem is real estate is a perception based product and most people don't understand the additional value or less than value because the machine only has blanket information to work with.
I was in a house last week (that I have an accepted offer on, as of this Tuesday when he gets back from out of town) where the seller wanted 100k for the house because he saw it on Zillow as worth that much. I talked him down to 60k because I was able to explain to him why it wasn't worth what he thought it was. Using MLS data I could point to other houses in the same area that were selling at the price point he wanted, but had significantly more updates and modern features that he was unwilling to put in (sweet for me).
Two weeks ago I was in a house in Haltom City that was as close to 1973 as possible. The seller wouldn't budge off her 70k asking price because she saw it on Zillow. Even though it was in semi-decent shape (i.e. livable), no buyer would buy this home without significant updates... I mean we're talking wood paneling and green carpet EVERYWHERE.
Needless to say this doesn't always happen, but that's why you've got to constantly get after it.
I hope you find this helpful.
