New Year’s resolution #7: “Get the best and most accurate market statistics and data available to you 24/7 from our sidebar site.”
You’ve likely noticed light posting on theFrontSteps lately. We have our reasons (yes, the surf has been good), and one of them is that we’ve been working on fulfilling our promises to our readers.
You’ll notice a new page we just added to the menu bar right up next to “Home”, “About”, etc. It’s currently called “Home Values” and we’d like you to check it out. Although we hesitate to use the word Zillow, it is along those lines. Cyberhomes pulls its information from Fidelity National Title, which has one of the largest databases of home sales and tax information in the country, and dammit if we aren’t impressed enough to put their pages on ours.
You can browse all sorts of things, use their heat maps, check up on neighborhood stats, and see how comparable homes in your area are stacking up to your own home.
This is a new feature we’re testing out. We’re in close contact with the brains behind this at Cyberhomes and he’s likely reading the comments (don’t be shy), so please share your feedback with us and Cyberhomes. The only reason to have something like this on the site is if it benefits you, the reader.
We hope you like it. More exciting things to come soon(ish).
there is some scrolling feature missing … or I’m dumb.
One good point is that my house’ graph of price on zillow and the same on cyberhomes have NOTHING in common. -> they did design their own algorythm.
But then, what do you use? the most favorable site (cyber) if you sell, and the less favorable site (zillow) if you buy?
What do you make from 2 charts being so opposite-different?
I’ll have to check more in details, but it looks like Cyber’s algorythm is bubble fighter, while zillow’s is a bubble maker.
I have used Cyber in the past, and dropped it – I can’t remember why. I’ll let you know if what bothered me was fixed or if it’s still there.
(( there are tons of bugs on your TFS-cyber page ))
let me know where and how to list them.
Sophie,
List them all here in the comments. Don’t hold back.
Hi guys, it’s David G from Zillow.com,
As far as I know, Cyberhomes don’t publish their AVM’s accuracy and so claims about being more accurate than Zillow are unsupported (and from all anecdotal indications, probably false.) If you do have any info on this, please let me know.
I wonder if you considered the inherent inaccuracy of estimates that are only based on public records? In my experience, value estimates of listings need special attention and that’s simply not Cyberhomes’ expertise.
The challenge that you will face with Cyberhomes (and all other AVM’s beside Zillow) is that estimates on listings can be inaccurate due to public records that are incomplete, out of date or incorrect. An experienced Realtor will understand the challenge with public records when it comes to home facts like beds, baths and sq.ft. Despite the fact that Cyberhomes has good access to public records their estimate accuracy suffers greatly whenever that raw data is flawed. You will find that this scenario can be extremely frustrating for sellers, buyers and agents because the listing info is usually correct yet the estimate is way off because of public facts.
Zillow is the only site of its kind that incorporates listing information in estimates. So, even ignoring algorithm differences, Zestimates on listings are inherently more accurate.
Since you’ve already done the work to integrate this stuff I am sure that this comment is poorly timed and my apologies for that. This important issue of a listings’ estimate accuracy seemed to be overlooked. Good luck with Cyberhomes and let me know if you’d like to learn more about Zillow’s API’s or Zestimates.
Huh? Zestimates are by and large dreadfully inaccurate.
@David G. – Let me help you get your facts straight…the Cyberhomes valuation does include public record data…to be specific our database of over 110 million properties, ownership, sales and mortgage records…YES. But it also includes analysis of local market trends, recent sales, and local economic factors all meshed together using our proprietary AVM process. Not to mention it’s enhanced with 10 years of appraisals and appraisal review information. I would expect you to know this?
I’ve tried the link here on TFS, also went directly to the CyberHomes site,and I can’t get it to work for me. The address search bar seems locked and won’t let me input anything, also the graphs or whatever little graphics with the swirling animation won’t load. I tried two different browsers and two internet connections, don’t think it’s anything on my end. I’ve love to try it so I’ll give it another try tomorrow and comment on it.
As for the accuracy of estimates, I have mixed feelings on Zillow’s accuracy. On my new home, the Zestimate is about $300k higher than what I just paid for it. My neighbor’s Zestimate is $100k higher than what he paid. Yet my old house’s Zestimate is perfectly in sync with what I just have two separate appraisals for it come in at.
Being able to add additional home facts to correct inaccurate public records is a huge deal. For some reason my new home shows up on some websites as only half the sq ft it should be. I have no idea why this is in my case, but it’s very clear that when the previous owner of my house added the true sq ft it made a huge jump in the Zestimate chart as you’d expected.
Hi Lev,
Thank you for your comments and please do let us know your thoughts! If you need to update your homes facts, list upgrades or eliminate comparable properties please take a look at this article on the Cyberhomes Good Reading Blog: http://budurl.com/9l6g
Frontsteps,
Have you been able to find accuracy statistics on Cyberhomes’ valuations? If so, please tell me! We’ve looked and can’t find them anywhere, nor can we figure out how a consumer would contact Cyberhomes when their valuation is incorrect.
Reggie,
How accurate are Cyberhomes’ valuations?
Also is it true that Cyberhomes is abandoning the direct to consumer website business, in favor of a B2B model where you power brokerage sites with listings and valuations? That’s what everyone was saying at Inman. Any truth to that?
Spencer,
We’ve found Cyberhomes to be as much, if not more, accurate than Zillow with their data and valuations, which is why we chose them. We have yet to search a home on Zillow for SF that came back anywhere near accurate in valuation. The couple we searched on Cyberhomes were much closer to what we would value the homes at. Not 100% accurate, but closer.
But just like Zillow, there is an inaccuracy factor due to insufficient data. We’re sure both companies are working towards perfection, we just like Cyberhomes vibe better. We’re all about the vibe man and going with the underdog. Truth be told, we’ve never been fans of Zillow, but we’re open for them proving us wrong.
True there are some bugs to fix, but we’ll get through it. We have faith in the folks at Cyberhomes. We hope they hurry up and fix it! ;-)
theFrontSteps
Spencer,
I can’t help but feel like you are trying to stir up trouble with untruths…but regardless let me help you get the facts straight. Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions (FNRES) has taken on the name Cyberhomes, LLC after the successful Cyberhomes.com. One of the Cyberhomes, LLC holdings is the rDesk line of agent and broker websites solutions, are you talking about this? Nothing has changed except the name. (I’m sure you wish that were different.)
As for your statement about Consumers not being able to contact Cyberhomes regarding their valuation…another complete and total untruth! Our customer support center takes great pride in listening to our customers and their concerns. We also have a link on every page designed to help us collect feedback from our users, thus helping us meet our goals of continuous site improvement.
I have one major problem with both sites, and with the city records. Many of those datas are left to anybody’s appreciation. I’ve never found a legal definition of square footage, I’ve never found a definition of “number of rooms” I’ve never found a definition of a bathroom. (if you have 2 powder rooms, .5 + .5 does it make 1 bath??).
this creates some serious discrepancies, and specifically a rift between recent buildings and older buildings.
Moreover, there is no major factor to tag/recognize/separate livable building versus building lots vs all the possible combinations (total fixers such as 469 clipper on the right) (or combos such as legal in-laws, unwarranted inlaw etc).
There is little input regarding the quality of off street parking – something that will often be a deal breaker in this city. 2 tandem is not 2 side by side for example.
talking about that specific house 469 clipper, let’s pull the data:
cyberhomes:
$1,392,732 – range 1,253,458 – $1,601,641 (12/19/08)
1983sqft – sfh – 6 rooms, 1 story – no built year.
Zillow
Zestimate: $1,137,000 – Range: $920,970 – $1,227,960 (01/14/2009)
Zillow (public)
1983 sqft – shf – 6 rooms – 1 bath – built 1900
Zillow (private)
1983 sqft – sft – 0 room – 1 bath – built 1900
now, the asking on that house is 939K. which is WAY OFF either estimates which dont take into account the “empty lot for builder”.
Assume Alex sells it for the asking (which is very reasonable either way) -> then I guess all the 2000 sqft 1ba houses on the block get slammed with a comp at $500/sqft!!! Sinking all the comps instead of booting the price of the land in the same comps!
Noe has been hurt a LOT in the past 2 years by the EXTREME sales (total fixers and multimillions). And either the algorythm should discard regardless the top and bottom 10% – or there is a need for more information, and to include that info in the calculation.
As much as I think both have very valid datas and algorithms for a suburb, as much I think for SF the tool is still in a useless stage…
—————
as zillow let’s me play A LOT with the value of a house, those are specific bugs: age a house 30 years from 1920 to 1890 (let’s imagine a normal marina style, and a pristine victorian) – and zillow will slam the zestimate by about 10%. Age that victorian 10 more years to become an historical house, and the zestimate will drop 5% more – instead of the real 5% increase for its historic value. (at least zillow LETS me put a building date prior 1900 – which is quite rare in this cyberworld! )
Again, on zillow, let’s assume you have 2 baths, 1 bedroom for a stunning loft on 3 floors. Change that data to add 5 closed bedrooms, and you increase the value, while the stunning loft has been transformed into a row of unusable closets – and the value has dropped to the basement.
Change 469 clipper into a vacant lot, and the value SKYROCKETS! :
$1,137,000 ….. Original Zestimate
$196,395 ….. Home Facts
$0 ….. Home Improvements
$0 ….. Comp Selection
—> $1,333,395
Value Range: $835,500 – $1,627,000
so my questions to both of you is
– how do you plan to improve your database of information?
– how do you plan to cross check and censure phony information?
– would you say that your algorithm tries to pinpoint the value of the building? or the value of the living space?
– moreover, on zillow, what credit do you give the the homeowner’s edited facts? (same for Cyberhome if and when it can be edited)
– how do you plan to value some human input ‘for free’ (like the Wikipedia model) ?
I’m not trying to choose the “best of two” – I think it’s good to have different options, different tools, but maybe with the answers to the above questions, it’ll be easier for me to use them in the appropriate circumstances, and in an appropriate manner.
thanks.
Hi Reggie,
Not trying to stir up trouble. Was legitimately asking if what several other people had told me was true. People at Inman (and beforehand) seriously have told me that Cyberhomes was going to go down the terabitz route: instead of focusing on a consumer website that’s advertising supported, focus on a B2B product that powers brokerage websites. I tried to find Marty at Inman to ask him, but couldn’t track him down. This seems like a plausible strategy and I was just trying to determine if it was the case or not.
On the customer service question, I’m still trying to get a better understanding of how accurate your estimates are. So I clicked on “About our Data” on the top of your site thinking that it would tell me about your data (as the name states). But that page isn’t about your data. (Try it.) So I clicked on the feedback form that you mentioned in your comment but it’s a site survey not a way to reach customer care. So if I’m an angry homeowner who thinks that you’ve underestimated my home (which, incidentally, I am), how do I complain to Cyberhomes? Filling out the site survey with the free-form text where I can write “your valuations are inaccurate” isn’t what I had in mind.
We struggle with this issue also — do we allow homeowners to contact us to debate their Zestimate? Rather than get into a debate with each individual homeonwer, we’ve decided to be transparent about our accuracy statistics and publish them on the site. All I was trying to tease out is how does Cyberhomes approach this issue?
Since I have your attention, I have one more question. I noticed that eppraisal updates their valuations once a month, and that your valuation of my home is date-stamped 12/31/08. How frequently does Cyberhomes update valuations? (I could probably find this out on your site somewhere, so my apologies for asking what might be an obvious question.)
Great Debate!
The reality is that both Cyberhomes and Zillow both admit that accuracy on property over $1 Million is suspect at best.
Additionally, neither company would suggest that their Automated Property Valuation tools are anything other than an indicator of value.
Consider this – if you would like to know what the value of your home may be, speak to a REALTOR and find a bunch of buyers. The value of property is exactly equal to the amount you and a buyer agree on.
Historical transaction prices can get you into the ball park – but the day to day fluctuations of buyer appetites and seller motivations can easily influence the value of a home by as much as 20%.
Zillow does an excellent job of informing consumers on the accuracy of the data – but only if you drill into the question mark next to the zestimate two layers deep. If zillow wants to be truly transparent on this issue – they could display that information immediately to the right hand side of the zestimate. I would not suggest that they do that as the accuracy can be pretty ugly in some markets – but they are always improving.
I would suppose that Cyberhomes has accuracy data – after all they offer AVM services to the banking industry and compete head to head with First American and others to win that business. Furthermore, they have been providing AVM services to the banking industry for many, many years. As we have seen with zillow, the more data points you have, combined with experience working with the data allow these companies to get more and more accurate. In this regard, Cyberhomes/Fidelity and First American are years ahead of zillow.
Alas –
The most important component of this issue is that REALTORS educate themselves on AVM products so they can confidentially explain the variations to their clients.
It sure is fun to look up the value of a friend’s home. Personally, I am looking forward to the day that a facebook app is released. That would be “off the hook.”
Great comments here. I especiallu love Sophie’s spot on observations (the vacant lot example is classic)
David G’s first comment reminds me of a debate we had in 2006 on a post called Mining the Elusive Unzillowable. http://tinyurl.com/2ffov5
His quote here “… estimates on listings can be inaccurate due to public records that are incomplete, out of date or incorrect.” is eerily similar to my objection back in 2006: “(assumption) 2. To be valuable, data must be fresh, accurate and complete. (and public data isn’t)”
David’s reply back then was:
“Assumption #2 is generally incorrect but can be correct in some edge cases — remember that the public record is actually being double-checked by many human beings. I’ve toured the assessor and recorder’s processes in Seattle (highly recommended) and there’s not much room for an error to make it the whole way through that system.”
Oh my, how he has come around to the truth about public data. Thus, to the extent zillowfied homes rely only on public data (and not listing info), they are equally suspect.
Re: Error rates
Zillow’s reliance on error rates to assuage the fundamental zestimate flaws is misguided, since a median error rate is simply the middle number in the error rate findings (calculated ex post facto, and that;s a whole ‘nother can of worms) meaning 50% of the Z error rates are ABOVE the median and can be huge.
For example, using error rates of 3% 4% 5% 7% 18% 39% 150%, the median error rate is 7% and looks good. But there are 2 problems–
1. the average error rate is over 30% &
2. (the most relevant) what error rate applies to the specific house I am looking at? Is it 7% 30% 150% or something else? It is UNKNOWABLE.
SO, knowing the median error rate in an area is USELESS when dealing with a specific house.
Someone please do a mashup of all the AVMs so their unreliability can be readily apparent.
Reggie –
You might want to read my comment again ‘coz you entirely missed my point. All I said is that Cyberhomes doesn’t incorporate current listing information in its estimates. This statement is accurate, no? If not, I’ll gladly retract my previous comment.
The point is simply that estimate accuracy on listed homes is important but Cyberhomes is not using current listing data to enhance its accuracy.
Joe –
What I have learned is that public records accuracy is actually a very local issue. Seattle’s King County IS awesomely accurate but in Salt Lake City UT for example, almost no-one’s property records and taxes are accurate. Zillow “came around” on the accuracy of public records in 2006 – it’s very old news that Zillow now allows owners to update home facts and we think it’s a GREAT feature. I guess what I’m saying is … what’s your point?
And on accuracy metrics – surely you understand how laughably disingenuous it is to criticize the only company that makes any effort to report its accuracy. No?
Hi Spencer, I picked up on this discussion in my news feed this morning and thought it might be useful to answer a couple of the key questions.
1. Strategy: no change. We will continue to invest in and grow our consumer Web property and audience. We will also continue to invest to provide agent, broker, and MLS sites with content in a variety of formats. The “Terabits route” is something we already do and have a profitable business in through a sister group here at Cyberhomes Inc (formerly known as FNRES), so no need for Cyberhomes.com to jump in there.
2. Accuracy: as a b2b provider (and leader) in AVMs, we participate in a number of independent, third-party benchmarking processes, and do very well in all of them. Since these are blind tests, we can’t know whether Zillow also submits their AVM into any of these cascades, but we’d be happy to compare results from any tests we may have both participated in. I also think the Pepsi challenge described by Joseph sounds like a very fine idea.
3. Customer feedback: we get a lot of it, on a range of subjects, as I’m sure Zillow does – via the feedback form on our site, and by phone. All of it is detailed, and we are very interested in what it reveals, and we act on everything which is actionable. So it doesn’t seem to us that our users have found it difficult to let us know what they think; in any case no one has expressed that to us (until now).
@David
Much public data is inaccurate, incomplete or stale– a point you disputed in 2006 but apparently now recognize. Hooray.
Second,and this is the main point, the median error rates are red herrings– they offer no value in assessing the accuracy of a specific home valuation. Absolutely none.
Read my comment again and study the example and it should materialize. If you still fail to appreciate the inherent problem with using general averages to gauge accuracy in specific cases, consider that the average human being has 1 breast and 1 testicle.
@Marty
In a 2006 MSN Money taste test the winner was Electronic Appraiser in Boca Raton, Florida. I believe they use title company data.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Homefinancing/P150627.asp?GT1=8176
Granted, the areas tested were limited and Zillow was still in Beta diapers.
Re Zillow.
Zillow may incorporate current listing but why then does it zillow a house for a price OVER the listing price. Mebbe a good idea in 2006 pricing, but hardly in this day and age. My example in my hood:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/91-Bret-Harte-Ln-San-Rafael-CA-94901/19246730_zpid/
House is on the market for 1.5m.. and its been there for months.. yes Zillow has it at 1.65m
Good point mac. And check this out (David, correct me if I’m wrong)– if a house sells for 1.5 m and the zestimate is 1.3 m.– guess which value goes in the Zindex and gets spit out in a report to the Press on the state of house “values”? If you guessed the actual sales price, you’d be dead wrong. Zestimates rule– even over sold prices.
As a homeowner who has tried out both services, I can say Zillow has at least one advantage – it allows the owner to update the description of the house to be more accurate and save the updates for public viewing — e.g., square footage, # of bedrooms, # of bathrooms. In SF, where a lot of crazy stuff happens with square footage, esp. older houses, this makes for more accurate valuations.
Perhaps Cyberhomes should consider allowing homeowners to correct inaccurate public information.
Toss Homegain into the mix. HomeGain was the first company to put web based instant home valuations on line-back in 1999.
HomeGain’s provides a range instead of an exact valuation (we could provide an exact number but we think that would indicate that a computer could accuratly provide a precise valuation.)
We believe that only an experienced reator can accurately place a value on a home as after all she the one who is going to get the price for the seller.
That’s why along with our instant home valuation, in more than 2100 zip codes, we also provide access to a realtor to contact to get a more accurate assessment of a home’s value. We also feature that realtor’s blog, profile and listings. Here is an example
http://www.homegain.com/homevalues/Merritt-Island-FL/32953/410-San-Cristobal-Ct
The focus is on the featured Realtor’s expertise, not the accuracy of the HomeGain instant home valuation tool.
We also provide access to our Home Sale Maximizer tool,which based on a survey of over 2000 real estate agents, let’s you know which home improvements will provide the best ROI (http://www.homesalemaximizer.com)
Louis,
Please tell us more. We’re all ears. Got any SF examples?
Sure, HomeGain created the instant home valuation tool in 1999. see
http://blog.homegain.com/homegain/homegain-cries-flattery-on-zillow/
In SF you can try a ‘covered’ area where we have agents who are available to provide a professional assesment. The consumer can also review the agent’s blog, profile and listings.
Here are two SF examples
http://www.homegain.com/agents/catherinemarcus-5056907
http://www.homegain.com/agents/leonpolinadelevi-888216
or an ‘uncovered’ area. In an uncovered area, the consumer does not have direct access to a real estate agent, but can still access the home valuation tool and Home Sale Maximizer.
If the consumer wants to contact a real estae agent in an uncovered area they are presented with an opportunity to compare agents in our agent evaluator program.
HomeGain was mentioned along with Zillow in the past week in the NY times and Charlotte Observer
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/realestate/18mort.html
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/463493.html
Louis,
They don’t have any blog entries on those SF examples. Why don’t you just feed theFrontSteps for your San Francisco coverage?
“We also provide access to our Home Sale Maximizer tool,which based on a survey of over 2000 real estate agents, let’s you know which home improvements will provide the best ROI (http://www.homesalemaximizer.com)”
louis, just guessing you have never set a foot in san francisco. Home improvments are BS in this market – unless you would have at the top of your list: location (truck-drive your stunning mission victorian to noe or pachghts), legalize your inlaw, evict your protected tenant etc – all of which have a *500% ROI* compared to a granite kitchen that is outdated the day it’s in place (see “granite is out” post) – with a ROI of 10% for without permit, and maybe 20% with permit.
I don’t have a recent experience with Homegain,but my last experience was in 2004, trying to sell our condo. After one month of multiple contacts with homegain, we had one online valuation of our property, but still hadn’t met any human being – worse, nobody had set a foot in our property (I guess SF city is too far from any offices to send someone in person?). we were ready to use your services, you blew it. I’d be very interested to hear testimonies of better stories SPECIFIC to SF, with SPECIFIC SF challenges (illegal inlaws, tenants, TIC etc) – and compare to your old fashion experienced realtor (such as Alex) who is the best combo of real human being with the max use of technology to power his work.
Louis, I don’t want to say Homegain is bad – but I’d like you to clarify what your business target is: internet database OR RE agency. To me, it’s not clear as of today, and you;re not reaching your best capacity in either domains.
(one PS: in 2004, we contacted ALL the online realestate “agencies” – and they ALL blew it – homwgain was not worse or different of the others).
I added you to my RSS Reader.
Both Cyberhomes and Zillow offer an API whereas agents and brokers have the ability to integrate the functionality into their consumer facing sites-FREE! (Side note…what is the true definition of FREE anyway?)
Does HomeGain have a similar offering?
I have to go with zillow on this one. I live in Jacksonville North Carolina and Zillows estimates have been right on. zillow says the estimate on my house right now is 124,500. i talked to my real estate agent the other day and he said he’d put the house up for at least 125,000. Also my friends houses are all within 1k of their selling prices. the same goes for the homes i’m looking for back in wisconsin. all the estimates are dead on. on cyberhomes all of the estimates i’ve looked up have been dreadfully low. if you want a comparison my house is 301 sterling rd jacksonvill nc.
As a real estate agent, I will take a pass on both sites. Currently my home is estimated on Cyberhomes for $596K and the identical subdivision tract home next door is estimated at $747K. Why? Not sure, but homes that have sold more recently have markedly lower values than those that have not recorded since the community was built. The million dollar homes (in 2007) two blocks away are now estimated between $900 and $1 mil while the few that sold since 2006 are now estimated at around $500K. Granted their sqft, number of beds and baths were never recorded. Either way, both websites’ estimates are grossly inacurate.
Cyberhomes make look a bit better than Zillow but the their data is dreadfully out of date and changes made by owners isn’t visible to anyone but the owner. The site is worthless.
Cyberhomes comparison data appears to rely too heavily on a city name they associate with a zip code. I live on a street that divides two zip codes, so I’ll use my house as an example. The valuations of houses across the street from my home are much higher (22% higher, on average) than my own even though the houses are comparable. the comparison data shown for my house all comes from a neighboring suburban city. However, my house is more than 50 city blocks (about 2.5 miles) within a large city. Who uses zip codes for mapping anymore?
Sorry, but in my hometown, Cyberhomes estimates are too high compared to Zillow’s by at least 60K or more. To me that is too much of a range, especially in this market. I however like Cyberhomes site because you can change the value by making the nessecary adjustments to a older home with no home improvements and nessecary work, but like a previous posts states, it is only viewable to the person doing the changes on his or her computer. Those changes should be able to be viewable to everyone with real reasons for the change. you can’t just assume that a home is the same price as the home next door that sold for $300k a few months earlier. Some houses have never had any improvements done, therefore can not justify the same selling price.
I have read through most of the postings, it would be helpful if anyone who posted here is an appraiser. Because, unless anyone from Zillow, Fidelity, Cyberhomes(same co.), Homegain, Homesalesmaximizer.com can statistcally prove that their estimates outweigh the opinions of a licensed, registers, fully insured (E&O) appraiser who actually puts his license and by way of penalty, his money on the line, then all of this is Hokum. Seriously, it is like reading yesterday’s newspapers for tomorrow’s news, and using editorial section as your main basis of opinion.
These sites are useful, in as much as they make for great cocktail conversation, but useful to anyone other than commissioned sales people who stand to generate leads from these sites, then they are no good. I have a solid knowledge of the accuracy of even the TOP scoring AVMs from almost every provider, and other than cookie cutter homes in a predictable escalating value marketplace, their approximations are highly suspect – since none of them reveal how they mix that strange brew.
Even in this maelstrom of marketplace, Appraisers (uninfluenced, non pressured, fully trained, and subject to agency reviews, and with skin in the game via the conditions of their E&O and USPAP licensing)will ever give an accurate picture of the value of somebody’s home.
– Robert Ross
CEO/Owner of Appraisix
Appraisal Management Company
Cyberhomes undervalues almost all of the homes I have looked at in Massachusetts.
Look at this example:
http://www.cyberhomes.com/homes-rowley-ma-01969/467wethersfieldst/79616728.aspx
This house sold for $460k in Feb, but was valued at the time at $388k by Cyberhomes. I live within a couple of miles and this house was worth $460 when it sold. Cyberhomes is about $60k to $90k too low for the whole area.
Further, why doesn’t the Rowley curve track the house curve – doesn’t make sense. Also, look at the Massachusetts price dip between April and July 2008 – not realistic.
Zillow is not perfect, but it is much closer to reality than any of the other sites I have seen.
From my cursory review, Cyberhomes estimates are highly suspect. For example, they list the house across the street from me (which has 1 less bedroom and is 500 sq ft smaller) at $100K higher than ours. At least on Zillow, the houses near me are estimated more realistically — smaller houses have a lower value than larger houses. So while both have an element of voodoo to them, Cyberhomes appears to be on crack as well.
I have been following Cyberhomes and Zillow estimates in a 5-square block area around my home in Seattle for several months. Cyberhomes estimates have a lot of inexplicable variation between very similar homes. There have not been many homes on the market around here, but those that have been put up for sale and were sold. seemed to have prices much closer to the Zillow estimate than Cyberhomes. (there have only been 3 homes, though)
Cyberhomes also does not update estimates regularly enough. The Cyberhomes estimates for homes in the 5-square block area in Seattle that I have been monitoring have not been updated since mid-May. With the current level of volitility, this makes their estimates useless.
Agree, Cyberhomes doesn’t update the values frequently. Even the historical values are not shown. If I want to see 5 year, 10 year trend, or past few sales, cyberhomes sucks.
FORECLOSURES AND SHORT SALES are killing every hard working home owner. Both sites take those values into consideration when calculating your home value. It is not fair. Since home valuation is a non-regulated area, anybody can create a home estimate.
Have tried many times to update and get Cyberhomes to update it’s database and they never respond. Their description and valuation of our property doesn’t even relate the county database or current description. Zillow may or may nor be accurate but at least they have and accurate description of the property.
Cyberhomes does allow temporary correction but it is only visible to the homeowner and reverts back to the old data once you log out. I have tried contacting them on this problem with no response.
Sorry I am a year late in responding-yes we do have an api and a home valuation widget
Here is the link to the free widget
http://www.homegain.com/webtools
Contact me if you want the API louis athomegain.com
Good idea, sorry I am a year late contact me
louis at homegain.com
Cyberhomes has the square footage of my home half the actual size. How come the data is wrong, and how can it be fixed?
I HAVE COMPAIRED SALE VALUES BETWEEN CYBERHOMES AND ZILLOW IN MY LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD, USUALLY HOMES SALE FOR AS MUCH AS TWICE THE EST. OF CYBERHOMES, ZILLOW IS ABOUT 25% OFF…BEING TOO LOW. NEITHER ONE OF THSES SITES ARE GOOD IN A HISTORIC OR OLDER NEIGHBORHOOD, IN WHICH THERE IS A GREAT DIFFERENCE IN HOUSING STYLES AND CONDITION.
I think the last post is bias ether a Realtor or under water seller, ether way there’s no way their 50% off . the issue I have with zillow is it seems to be now controlled and even heard funded by the NAR and we all know they what to keep the prices up to keep their outrageous fees intact
As of now Cyberhomes shows my property at 75% the price it should be (based on recent sales of similar units in the very same complex, which don’t even show up in Cyberhomes’ outdated list of comparable homes). Zillow is more on target. Since Mint.com has chosen to use Cyberhomes as their only real estate engine, this is a bit annoying.
Just discovered CyberHomes, and found that my house is listed as “distressed” with a list price that’s $70K lower than what we paid for it when we bought it. Oddly enough, they have a record of the sale, less than two years ago, but our house has been “listed” at that price for 690 days. I think we’d know.
Zillow’s estimate seems to be much more in line with what I’ve seen, by closely monitoring what homes are going for around me, and the condition they are in. We bought during the decline, and while we got a great price, it’s worthwhile to have some notion of what prices are doing. I guess I’ll keep using Zillow and my local resources.
I also found Cyberhomes to be inaccurate. The information is over a decade old – apparently because it relies upon public records which haven’t been updated despite the fact that the information has to be at least 3 sales transaction old (major remodel several transactions ago). One of the major fallacies of their method is that they depend on county assessors to keep this information accurate.
Another issue is that the site lists “comparables” in undesirable neighborhoods that are geographically near, but don’t take into account realities (inner city living sometimes means desirable neighborhoods are near less desirable neighborhoods and one nearby listing may be relevant while another is completely irrelevant).
Nice to see another competitor to Zillow, but I wish you could update the home facts (can’t find any info whatsoever on their site with directions on how to change the basic facts to be considered for its valuation).
Cyberhomes is totally useless at finding valuations. It only finds about one in thirty homes. I’ve written their support department a couple of times, but nothing gets fixed.
I get values from four other sites and average them. Sometimes, I’ll throw out one or more, if they’re too far off from the others. I use Zillow.com, eppraisal.com, HomeGain.com and City-Data.com. With City-Data, do the zip code search first. When you get the demographics for that zip code, move down a little and input the address. Then just click on “estimate”.
Reggie,
Your post from 1/15/09 is total B.S. There’s no “contact” link and no place on the CyberHomes web pages to leave feedback. The only reason I was able to get in touch with your support department is because I saw the “Company Info” link, and that page said you were affiliated with http://www.ListingBook.com. I had to go to the ListingBook web site to ask for support…..which was fruitless. Nothing ever gets fixed anyway.
Cyberhomes is totally useless at finding valuations. It only finds about one in thirty homes.
Gary,
It’s our understanding that Reggie is no longer with Cyberhomes, so don’t expect a reply. Regardless, we appreciate your comments.
TUT PROSTO
Where is admin?
I’ts important.
Thank.
Racoonda.ru