Real Estate Investor · Papillion, NE · Member since 2013 · 21 posts · 0 votes
I'm new to the REI and do not have access to the MLS yet. Is it safe to use Trulia, Zillow or Realtor.com for my comps, if I'm using them all? I"m also using the county assessor site to get assessment price from there and compared to those prices. I'm basically taking prices from all four sites and then taking the averages from that to get comps right now.
@Justin Maynard With all due respect, your title displays "real estate investor". ARV is one of the most critical aspects of the puzzle to estimate correctly for your investments, with so much on the line why would you chance it?
The counties tax assessed value has nothing to do with market value and is often inaccurate. The sole purpose of the counties assessment is to generate tax revenue.
Websites such as Trulia and Zillow are not accurate for figuring out the ARV of a specific property. They use algorithms that attempt to estimate what the property is worth, and these values can fluctuate wildly compared to the properties real market value.
The only exception is Redfin. In some markets Redfin pulls sold comps directly from the MLS. They do this in my market; however, please note this data is limited in scope and you will not get the same level of information if you were to pull the comps yourself or have an agent do it for you from the MLS. Often times when I have checked Redfin they are missing sold comps in the area that only show up on the MLS. They also do not show leased comps and things of that nature.
About the only thing I use those sites for is to see some of the historical data for the property, but if your looking for current information, like appraisal value or sale price your not going to get it. If the house is currently on the market it will be reflective in price, but I looked at Zillow for the value on my home two years ago and then I had it appraised and it was 40k off. So use at your own risk IMO. Hire a professional if you want the facts.
@Justin Maynard With all due respect, your title displays "real estate investor". ARV is one of the most critical aspects of the puzzle to estimate correctly for your investments, with so much on the line why would you chance it?
The counties tax assessed value has nothing to do with market value and is often inaccurate. The sole purpose of the counties assessment is to generate tax revenue.
Websites such as Trulia and Zillow are not accurate for figuring out the ARV of a specific property. They use algorithms that attempt to estimate what the property is worth, and these values can fluctuate wildly compared to the properties real market value.
The only exception is Redfin. In some markets Redfin pulls sold comps directly from the MLS. They do this in my market; however, please note this data is limited in scope and you will not get the same level of information if you were to pull the comps yourself or have an agent do it for you from the MLS. Often times when I have checked Redfin they are missing sold comps in the area that only show up on the MLS. They also do not show leased comps and things of that nature.
I've posted plenty on here recently about how badly Zillow sucks. Do a search of the forums. Zillow's Zestimate is almost worthless. And a lot of their actual "sold" info is wrong too. You really need to do more than just take a bunch of averages, even with actual reported sold data. Even with actual sold data from the MLS. For any given property, the actual "sold" data that is reported can be very misleading. What kind of condition was the property in? Was it a repo? Was it a short-sale? Here's a great example that I like to point out to people - back in the days before the crash, banks were loaning people much more than a house is worth. Let's say for example, a loan for 125K on a 100K house. And these were often interest only, or even negative am loans. So, it's very possible that these people still owe 125 (or more). Then they get behind and start missing payments. A year goes by and they have missed 12 payments at $700 each ($8400). Then there are late fees and attorney fees that are tacked on and the thing finally goes to the court-house steps for repo auction with the people owing $145,000. Guess what gets recorded as the sale price in the public records? You got it, $145,000. And that's what Zillow and Trulia and everything else on the internet will report.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I just listened to a podcast this morning that called out using these three sites. It said they are not the best to use and neither am I but when you have to they will work. I have even read at least 3 books this month calling out these site. I know they are off on the figures and thats why I use all three of them. It all I have at this time.
For the first month I was starting out I worked with a realtor that gave me nothing but miss leading information. He had me go to a seller with comps he gave me and one of the house on the list was never sold, the seller new the owners, called me a liar and kicked me out of his house. Thats what I got for dealing with a realtor.
Since then I have meet a lot of people in REI community and have a few realtor contacts, just still have a bad taste in my mouth from the last one. I have met other investors in my area and hope that one of their realtors will be willing to working with me.
@Chris Feltus my title does say "real estate investor" because even those of us just starting out can still have the mind set and passion. I am new and I do not know everything that's why ask questions and joined BP.
If you do not have MLS access make friends with an agent or someone who does and run your comps through them. If you have to promise to work with them if you see something attractive or offer to pay them a small amount for their time and/or access.
There are a lot of hungry agents out there who will be willing to work with you!
@Justin Maynard - I could write a book on why you should become a Realtor yourself. Search the forums here and you will find more than 3 books worth of info on that.