I want to touch briefly on the March 4th article in the Globe entitled Price Check, by Paul F. Roberts. I believe he exposed the truth about these Real Estate websites currently coming online and battling for your eyeballs.

Truth is that pricing homes and condos for sale isn’t an exact science. All the search algorithms in the world can’t help accurately price your home because the systems these companies use are still based on human input. That said, where there’s human input there is also human error.

I love that these sites are trying to meet the demands of customers looking for the most up-to-date information available. Unfortunately, their methods don’t always paint an accurate picture. In this article Roberts profiles the Russell family who owns what appears to be a beautiful condo in Cambridge, MA. Sadly, every website they used for this article came up with a different price for the house. Also the owners had to correct the information about their home. Cyberhomes.com, Trulia.com, and Zillow.com all come up with different prices for a 2 Bed 1 Bath condo, when in reality the residence is a 3 Bed 2 Bath condo with deed parking, considerably more valuable than the websites’ original estimates, each based on flawed information.

And that’s what I want to point out. It looks like these sites search the City Assessors database; the same error was found there as well. I am not sure of how each site calculates its values of an individual home, but no matter what equation is used the result will always be wrong if the data entered in is not correct.

I’m not blogging about this to bash these sites. I realize that they’re in their infancies as companies and will find a way to correct these errors. In truth, I actually like them and see them as another avenue to market homes for my clients. I personally find the “Zestimate” at Zillow.com useful. You can gauge how serious someone is about selling by comparing their “Zestimate” to current market conditions.

These sites are fun to use and provide great conversation at social functions, but double and triple check your home values with a specialist in your market. If the time comes for you to sell or buy, you don’t want to over or under-price your home. Either will result in a loss of potential equity.

To conclude this post, I guess as with all things, “Buyer beware!”

To view the Article quoted in this post – Click Here.

Filed under: Real Estate 2.0, Boston Real Estate Blogging