How does Zillow compare to the MLS?

Question

Zillow seems to have a tremendous amount of information about available properties. Looking for houses to flip, do you really need access to the MLS or is monitoring Zillow just as good?

Chris Feltus · Answer

It's not quite that new. Overall I found it to be quite underwhelming in my market, it often is unable to find a good portion of the comps at all, and the comps it does report tend to have inaccurate sales numbers. I have verified extensively through the MLS.

Tim G. · Answer

Redfin is by far the most powerful tool for an investor who doesn't have access to MLS.

I don't even need anything else, I'd prefer to have Zillow and Trulia blocked at this point I find them so obsolete.

Andrew Portnoy · Answer

+1 to Keerthi recommendation on Redfin. If it's available in your market, I highly recommend it as a source for MLS data.

Jose Enage · Answer

like @Renee Munro  and @Kelly P. I look at Zillow's recent sales and ignore the zestimate. I tend to counter check them with Trulia, Redfin etc.

But here's a new one by Kent Clothier's group- if you have not tried it out

www.findcompsnow.com

It looks promising.

Brian Farr · Answer

Kelly P. is correct.  When on Zillow, pull up the house you are researching.  Go down the right side of the page until you see similar sales.  Click on similar sales.  These are the same sales prices that are found on the MLS or county website.  I have cross checked them numerous times.  The difference will be that in a half mile radius, the MLS may show the data for 10 houses sold while Zillow will show maybe 5  houses sold during the same time period.  So you will have less comps, but they are accurate nonetheless.

Keerthi A. · Answer

No, Samatha.

Redfin does not have rental listings or leased comps.

Redfin is a RE Brokerage agency focussed only on buying/selling, they do not do rentals. People without agents look at it and sometime call Redfin agents who are paid salary not commission. So they do get money form this. They made the software from MLS data. But only for buying, selling. Redfin is already must be paying a lot of money for the MLS data, why would they give out rental info when they do not work on rentals.

Andrew Portnoy · Answer

Not exactly sure if I understand what you're looking for, but redfin allows you to search recent sales. (Click "More Options", and then "Sale Records" in the bottom left). You probably want to use that "More Options" tab to filter down on your criteria. If you're looking at multifamily houses, those will generally have the income and expense figures that were originally part of the MLS listing.

Ramon Jenkins · Answer

I also agree working with an agent when

possible, but regardless allows double check

numbers ( mls / redfin )

Misc -> One plus to @Chris Feltus

Samantha M. · Answer

Wait Redfin now pulls actual data from the MLS now? Can you get leased comps too? I just hopped on redfin.com to try it out but its very confusing and Im not sure how to pull comps, is there a tutorial?

How does Zillow compare to the MLS?

Most Popular Reply