Who can you trust for accuracy...Zillow or Realtor.com?

Colleen

Colleen

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
As many of you know, my husband and I planning a relocation in the Spring and even though it's early to start looking at homes for sale in the areas we're considering, we've been checking out information at Zillow and Realtor.com. I've Googled both and Zillow has been most favorable with accuracy on information given.

What I've found interesting, and an important factor for us, is property taxes in our target areas. For instance, yesterday I was looking at a listing on Zillow and it gave the property taxes as $303/month. I looked on Realtor.com just to compare, and it listed the property taxes as $539/month. That's a big discrepancy!

I realize that the best way to get accurate info is to contact a realtor but we're not ready yet. I'm just saying that it's not easy to look for a potential home when there's discrepancy's in the information listed. Anyone else relocating finding that not all information listed is correct?
 

We have watched real estate markets for years before we moved. It is a GREAT idea to keep an eye on the market for any area you are considering. (We did it for 2 years) DO NOT rely on that monthly estimate! Scroll down for the ACTUAL taxes paid last year. It is public information so you can even call the Town Clerk to ask OR check with the listing agent if it is not part of the property description.

City-Data.com is a great website for general area demographics of a town or city.
 

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Colleen said:
I've Googled both and Zillow has been most favorable with accuracy on information given.
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I just tried googling my house on both platforms, and they both had correct tax info, but the estimated value on zillow was a lot higher than on realtor.com, and I think the realtor.com value is probably more realistic. I liked that realtor.com had the flood risk for the property and the surrounding area. It said minimal risk to the property but moderate risk to the road, and that is exactly correct according to my experience when we had a flood a few years ago, my house was fine but the local road was impassible (to little car like mine) for a month and the big highway was closed for 4 months for repairs.
 
Good info, HoneyNut - I am pretty sure the "estimates" given by Zillow, Realtor and Trulia are simply per-square-foot dollar average from other properties in the area that have closed, NOT professional "comps". A licensed Realtor will give a better value estimate depending on the condition and upgrades of the property in their market.

I would also recommend, if you travel to a target community, that you ask around and meet with a Realtor or two BEFORE you are ready. If you can find the right person, it will be a HUGE asset! We did that in 2015 and that person was always there to answer any questions about any listing or area information. She also pre-viewed several houses for us, once we WERE ready, in 2017, since it was impossible for us to fly up every weekend and homes were selling over night! I would also recommend that you subscribe - even just online - to a local newspaper. We found out from headlines that one area we were serious about had some issues with oil pipelines that ran under neighborhoods. We dodged a major bullet but pulling back from that area.

Good luck Colleen!!
 
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Colleen said:
Zillow has been most favorable with accuracy on information given
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I've found just the opposite.
I've found Zillow to be the most sucky as far as across the board accuracy.
Seems they like to show you something you want to see.....

At least that's been my experience.

I prefer Realtor.com in regard to right pricing.

Bottom line, if I'm serious about a property, I'm on the realtor
 
UPDATE: We contacted a realtor we used 7 years ago when we sold our house to move to AZ and he will be calling us on Monday. We think we're going to relocate back to the town we came from in PA. I'd better get my list of questions for him written down this weekend...haha :)
 
I'm not looking for a home but one of my hobbies, which some might find weird, is looking through apartment and condo listings. My DIL who had been looking at possibly purchasing something used to send me listings from Zillow. That's how I first found out about that site. I've never been to Realtor.com though have seen many commercials. I like that Zillow lists property tax histories, sale histories and what the monthly costs would be (by categories). They also usually have lots of pictures of the properties.
 
officerripley said:
Zillow's been in the news lately, for having problems with something called "the instant buyer program", it was using some kind of algorithm or some darn thing for house flippers that screwed things up and necessitated them having to lay off 25 percent of their workforce. Here's an article on it: https://www.wired.com/story/zillow-ibuyer-real-estate/.
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They closed down that "buy your ugly house instantly" program...their stock took a big hit.
 
In my area, property taxes are based on the selling price of the home. So the taxes you see listed are based on what the current owner paid for the house. Your taxes will be based on what you paid for the house, which will, of course, be higher. Also in my area, some owners get what is called a homestead exemption, which lowers the taxes and the new owner won't benefit from that exemption. But that won't be reflected in the taxes shown in the house listing. The PVA (Property Valuation Administrator) is the best choice for determining what the taxes will be when buying a house.
 
caroln said:
In my area, property taxes are based on the selling price of the home. So the taxes you see listed are based on what the current owner paid for the house. Your taxes will be based on what you paid for the house, which will, of course, be higher. Also in my area, some owners get what is called a homestead exemption, which lowers the taxes and the new owner won't benefit from that exemption. But that won't be reflected in the taxes shown in the house listing. The PVA (Property Valuation Administrator) is the best choice for determining what the taxes will be when buying a house.
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I know that there is homesteading in the area we want to move back to because we did that when we lived there. It helps.

The housing market is crazy everywhere and the place we had been looking to relocate is unreachable for us now. A realtor friend told us the reason prices are being driven up in that area is because they have a lot of people moving out of NY, where COL is much higher and property taxes are so much higher. That's resulting in bidding wars for houses and making inventory low. What the realtor said was that because of the higher prices, a lot of homes are not appraising for the asking price and people can't pay the additional dollars to get the house so they're being re-listed. Also, the price of the house reflects how much their property taxes will be but a lot of people don't understand that and then they're shocked when the house payment goes up.

A realtor we've dealt with previously is calling us today to discuss what we're looking for and budget, among other things. That will help with questions we have about how taxes have gone up. If we can find a house outside the city limits, in a township, for example, it will be cheaper. That's where we lived before.
 
Colleen said:
As many of you know, my husband and I planning a relocation in the Spring and even though it's early to start looking at homes for sale in the areas we're considering, we've been checking out information at Zillow and Realtor.com. I've Googled both and Zillow has been most favorable with accuracy on information given.

What I've found interesting, and an important factor for us, is property taxes in our target areas. For instance, yesterday I was looking at a listing on Zillow and it gave the property taxes as $303/month. I looked on Realtor.com just to compare, and it listed the property taxes as $539/month. That's a big discrepancy!

I realize that the best way to get accurate info is to contact a realtor but we're not ready yet. I'm just saying that it's not easy to look for a potential home when there's discrepancy's in the information listed. Anyone else relocating finding that not all information listed is correct?
Click to expand...
The best way to determine property taxes is to find out what the state's property tax rate is and then apply that to the purchase price. I took a quick look at Zillow and for the properties I looked at, the taxes were based on the most recent assessment - which could be entirely different from what your taxes would be.
 
Flaneuse said:
The best way to determine property taxes is to find out what the state's property tax rate is and then apply that to the purchase price. I took a quick look at Zillow and for the properties I looked at, the taxes were based on the most recent assessment - which could be entirely different from what your taxes would be.
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I found the web that gives the rates for every state and county, so I have a better idea if the figures from Zillow or realtor.com are more accurate. It looks like Zillow's rate is correct. PA's tax is based on the purchase price of the home.
 
Colleen said:
A realtor we've dealt with previously is calling us today to discuss what we're looking for and budget, among other things. That will help with questions we have about how taxes have gone up. If we can find a house outside the city limits, in a township, for example, it will be cheaper. That's where we lived before.
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Well...this realtor has not called or even text'd me to let me know he was busy and would call at a different time...or whatever his excuse would be, so we've moved on to a different agency. What is it with people that don't ever return your calls??? We have a dead pine tree in our yard that needs to be taken down and I've called 2 different people and neither have called me back.....AAARRRGGGHHH!
 

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