Elvis Home Becoming a Real-Life Heartbreak Hotel

6 Comments so far

1. Steve Oshins on August 23, 2006 11:08 pm

   Three times in six months, I have filled out Zillow’s online form to inform them of an error in data on my home. Because I merged my two parcels into one last year, Zillow has my real estate taxes at zero and therefore has dropped the Zestimate of my home from about $4 million (not including my second parcel (worth $500 to $750,000) to just over $800,000, for a house on an acre on a lake with almost 11,000 sq. ft. of house. This has now started affecting my entire neigborhood. The Zestimates for the other $3 million and $4 million houses are dropping every week because of house’s Zestimate. Zioow will not fix this and has ignored all attempts I’ve made to contact them. I’m getting fed up.

2. David G from Zillow.com on August 24, 2006 9:36 am

   Steve,

   We are following up by e-mail to get more details about your house. Also, we’re not ignoring you, I’m sorry that it feels that way. We read all of the feedback we receive and many homeowners tell us they’d like the ability to publish updated facts about a house and their opinion of its value. We’ve heard you and have decided to build that functionality next - soon you’ll be able to make those corrections live on teh web site.

   Also, please note that a single incorrect Zestimate should not impact the Zestimate of neighboring houses. There must be something else going on there and we’ll look into it once we have your address.

   Thanks again for your feedback.

3. Kristin Hamilton on August 24, 2006 9:37 am

   I recently sold a beautiful home in Loma Linda, CA. The price before the sale was at $639,000 and it sold for $650,000. Now 2 months later, Zillow says this house should sell at $689,000. Wow, in the California market nothing is appreciating like that. I know for a fact that there are 101 homes for sale in this city and nothing is selling.We seem to be in a buyers market and they are setting the prices based on what they want to offer.Buyers are asking less thanks to the television and radio reports. How can Zillow keep uping the values?

4. Steve Oshins on August 25, 2006 2:17 pm

   David-

   Thank you for your response August 24th at 9:36am to my August 23rd at 11:08pm post regarding the Zestimate of my house dropping from about $4 million to about $800,000 because Zillow hasn’t recognize my combining of two parcels from over a year ago. My address is 2800 High Sail Ct., Las Vegas, NV 89117. If you can fix this, then please let me know at soshins@oshins.com. Thank you again. [P.S. - Although I don’t have access to your valuation formulas, it seems very strange that the other $3 million and $4 million houses in my neigborhood have dropped by a few hundred thousand dollars over the past few months. I suspect that my Zestimate is factored in to theirs as a comp and bringing the entire neighborhood down.]

5. David G from Zillow.com on August 25, 2006 4:00 pm

   Steve -
   Thanks. It looks like the Zestimate is impacted by some bad tax assesment information. Our data folks are diving into what caused this and how to fix it — I’ll send you an update once we know.

6. Steve Oshins on August 25, 2006 10:54 pm

   David-

   The bad tax assessment information is because I combined my two adjacent parcels into one single parcel of 0.98 of an acre a little more than a year ago. Zillow still think I have two parcels and thinks my 2006 real estate taxes are $0 for each, which is why the value has tanked. I combined them into one parcel - Parcel #16308611039. The value for my combined single parcel and residence should be somewhere between $3.5 million and $6 million, most likely $4 million to $5 million. Thank you again.