Zestimates Ruining rents?

Question

Just posted my first rental on zillow and im a little alarmed. After doing careful market research and comparing to similar rentals around the area my realtor which has quite a few properties himself and I came up with would be more than fair to ask per month. The only problem is the zestimate is estimating $200 lower and its right there on fron for everyone to see of course. This seemed unusual seeing that there is properties for rent very close by in nowhere near as good condition zestimating for more. Do these zestimates actually cause problems for people or is it not really that big of a deal.Im worried it will affect responsed but well see its been online 10 minutes.

Account Closed · Answer

Those estimates were never correct when I was managing either. Tenants will find out what the real cost of rentals are when they actually start calling around.

Dennis M. · Answer

Don’t worry about any of that , most tenants are more worried about their favorite guy on a court who throws a ball in a hoop or what beer they want for the weekend . Most renters don’t look or care to consider comparable pricing

Michael King · Answer

Yes excellent point Dennis. It's probably only other landlords, brokers, PMs and anyone involved in making money from REI that care about these numbers. Oh and the homeowner. And most probably disregard them anyway.

Michael King · Answer

I get value zestimates on my rentals every month. They're usually not far off; but one came back about $30K or 15% under the previous month's. I emailed them and said hey what the hey? They said they have no control over their valuations. Next month it was magically back up there. To me the zestimates - rental or value - are useless information like TV commercials.

Kenneth Garrett · Answer

@Brandon Metz

Don’t trust Zillow, Redfin or any other valuation whether it be a rental or fix n flip.  The numbers are taken from an algorithm, but it’s not specific Enough.  Do your own calculations.

Aaron K. · Answer

Generally no, unlike with sales rents aren't negotiable in most cases so it isn't used in that way.  Also rent zestimates are far less accurate than value zestimates which themselves are often quite inaccurate, if you are priced appropriately for the market you should be fine.

Zestimates Ruining rents?

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