Is Zillow an accurate source for abondoned home Prices

[Curtis Daniels]

Sometimes I check abandoned and distressed house prices on Zillow and see that they are sometimes in the same ball park price wise as many other sold and non for sale homes with the same criteria as them.

I understand that Zillow's Zestimates are not appraisals, but are these the Actual Retail Value of the homes by Zillows estimates? Trying to figure this stuff out.

[Ben Skove]

Zillow's algorithms don't take into account whether or not it's occupied - it just uses public data for square footage, tax history, etc. According to their site:

So what they're giving is the ARV by their estimate. Of course, their estimate is sometimes (often?) wildly off.

In the area I work in, neither occupied nor vacant/distressed properties comp for anything near what Zillow says. Like Ryan says, use recent sales to do your comps.