I wouldn't say Zillow is very accurate and in my area all Zillow has is the tax records and just state the value based on the tax records. One house showing less than another just means the Tax Appraisal District has a lower value on it for some reason or another. A house sold in my neighborhood for $330K 6 months ago and Zillow still has its value at 189K (the same as the appraisal district). Zillow is not even close to comps for any sales around here.

If that is they way in your area on Zillow too then I wouldn't put much stock in it at all.

Now if you want to correct all those things you could contact the tax entity where you live and have it all re-done and most likely they'll add all your improvements and raise your tax appraised value and you'll pay more in taxes, which would I guess be the honest thing to do.

the sf of your property is easily attainable, simply what are the property dimensions? L X W = sf, then calculate the acreage(partial in your case)..corner lots give the impression of being larger, but sometimes are not..Also realize most properties don't own to the street/curbline, hence being a corner lot, you might look like you have a bigger lot.

Around here, in Michigan, the state/county owns 50 feet in from the center of the road, on both sides, so they own 100 feet. We had a corner lot and had the pleasure of keeping their section cut, watered and fertilized.
Kathy G in MI

...simply what are the property dimensions? L X W = sf..."

If it is a simple rectangle...

What does your legal survey of the property say? That should give you the actual size of your lot. Zillow.com is very very inaccurate. I've looked up my home and homes of other family members and it didn't have a true value for any of them, had wrong square footage for my home, I wouldn't sweat it if Zillow is wrong. My neighbors house is basically the same size as mine and basically the same amenities yet their property is valued a good $60,000 less than mine according to Zillow.

Ooops I just read my post again and I meant to say Zillow is NOT very accurate.

As someone else said, Zillow is not always accurate. It has my father's 2 story contemporary listed as a ranch.

You need a surveyor to survey your property and give you a stamped plot plan. This will tell you exactly how much land you have and if anyone is infringing. Don't trust Zillow, the assessor, or anyone else.

Zillow is a guess. Nothing more.

Zillow is garbage as far as I'm concerned. It says my house is 1752 square feet (as did the seller of my house, but that is another story) and when I change it to the correct 1650 is makes my "zestimated" house value increase instead of decrease. I started playing with it because I thought that was odd... if I make my house only 400 square feet its worth a half million more than reality, if I make it 5000 square feet its worth half of reality.

I left an email to zillow technical support asking for an explanation, and of course it went unanswered...

I wouldn't give a second thought to anyting Zillow says.

Zillow and the tax assessor both think my house is half the size it is and I am not going to correct them anytime soon. My previous house and the next door house sold at the same time and we found out that our lot was actually 6 feet narrower from the front to the back! I totally freaked out! It turned out that my house should have never been built on such a narrow lot and the city just ignored it. At the end of the day, we went to the back of the property and dug down to where the "pin" was put down as a marker and knew that the new survey was right and we had a storage shed and sidewalk on the neighbor's land. It turned out that none of the buyers cared and it was simply disclosed in both contracts.

Can you find out if they put some kind of marker on your property so you can measure the lot without paying for a survey?

Zillow from a buyer's (my) perspective:

My husband and I are trying to buy a house in a city that is about 2 hours drive away. We use Zillow to see the aerial shots of the house and surrounding neighborhood and get the tax information which shows the last sale price of the home. It allows us to see the general shape of the lot, how close the neighbors are, etc. Looking at the last sale price, I can get a sense of whether the seller has a lot of room to negotiate due to price appreciation.

I know not to put much stock in Zillow's zestimates because there is no way they consider the actual condition of the home - which can change the value drastically. So, don't worry too much about the zestimate, but make sure that your square footage and acreage are correct in public records.

jpok wrote: Looking at the last sale price, I can get a sense of whether the seller has a lot of room to negotiate due to price appreciation.

Just a comment the above (from a sellers perspective).

It's a lot more accurate to base your offer on the most recent solds that are comps to the house you are interested in. What the seller paid for the house really has no bearing on the current asking or even the final selling price.

In response to laura1202 - yes, I agree that the list price is only supposed to reflect a market price. But the last sale price is a definite indicator of how much room the owners have to negotiate (unless they have gotten home equity loans which decreased their equity substantially). It doesn't necessarily mean that people with more price appreciation would accept a lower offer, but at least they CAN accept a lower offer and still walk away with cash in their pockets and dry eyes.

In these days, there are quite a few owners and investors who got in over their heads and are now trying to sell their flips or houses that they purchased during the last couple years of housing boom. If I see a house that I'm interested in, the baseline of their original sale price lets me know how likely they are to be able to negotiate. If they bought the home last year for $400,000, and have now listed it for $425,000, they probably are too emotionally set on not losing money or financially cannot accept a lower offer on it (having to pay 6% commission and all), even in a market that is telling them their price is too high.

jpok wrote: If they bought the home last year for $400,000

If they bought the home last year they are also going to be paying taxes on any profit that they make, if they make any at all. Not good.

Last sale prices can be easliy accessed in most places so if it makes you feel better as a buyer to have that information, that's great--I just don't think it's all that relevant.

I was looking at Zillow last week. They are terrible. There are two houses down the street from me, both built in the 1700s, both on the same size lot, both assessed at about the same amount for tax purposes. One of them is valued at 300k, which would be about right. The one next door is valued at 450k, with the note in the little box saying that in the past thirty days, the value has gone up 102k. Uh huh. They should soooo sell now.

Regarding using Zillow to see the last purchase price, and figure out the seller's wiggle room: that often leaves out improvements. Another neighbor bought their house three years ago, did a renovation that doubled the square footage, and added a garage. Zillow has their purchase price and a current value that does not include those improvements (but the improvements are reflected in the tax assessment).

I think the information that you can get from public sources about real estate transactions varies from location to location. And also, the tax assessments are calculated very differently in CA vs CO (where we owned a townhouse). In Colorado, the tax assessor's website showed last sale price and uses the current estimated market value (which is frequently above the true market value) for calculating tax levy. But here in California, last sale information is not usually available on a government website - unless you pay fees to have them send you the information via fax/mail. And, in California the tax assessment is based more on the original sale price with small adjustments - I guess they do this because the tremendous price appreciation would make it difficult for a lot of people to afford the property taxes on the true market value.

I'll give you a specific example of how the Zillow last sale price helped me to eliminate a house: There is a home listed for $440,000 with only 1200 square feet. It is a small home for the price, and I can tell from the MLS that they redid the kitchen and the flooring. But even with those improvements, its overpriced considering the square footage and location. So, I went on Zillow and looked up the last sale price - it was purchased 6/2006 for $360,000 and was put up for sale 11/2006. The place is vacant, so I'm pretty sure it was a flip. So not only have they had carrying costs, but they had renovation costs and will have commission costs coming out of the end number. If I only think it's worth under $400,000 compared to the other listings available, I'm not going to bother bidding on it, because the chances that they'll accept an offer of under $400,000 are slim to none. I may not be correct in assuming that for every seller, but this whole real estate thing has so much psychology involved that I'd rather save my time to consider prospects that are realistic.

jpok, your comment here makes it sound as if the govt of CA willingly foregoes taxing houses on the market value: "And, in California the tax assessment is based more on the original sale price with small adjustments - I guess they do this because the tremendous price appreciation would make it difficult for a lot of people to afford the property taxes on the true market value."

Not true! No way would tax-hungry CA let us get away with that. In 1978 voters put in place Proposition 13 which limits the taxation on property. Otherwise many people who had purchased homes decades before could have lost their property due to the surge in RE prices (and therefore taxes) that would have overwhelmed them.

I'm copying this next part from Wikipedia: "Under Proposition 13, the real estate tax on a parcel of residential property is limited to 1% of its assessed value, until the property is resold. This "assessed value", however, may only be increased by a maximum of 2% per year. If the property's market value increases rapidly (values of many detached dwellings in California have appreciated at annual rates averaging more than 10% over the course of several years) or if inflation exceeds 2% (common), the differential between the owner's taxes and the taxes a new owner would have to pay can become quite large. The property may be reassessed under certain conditions, when additions or new construction occur; the assessed value is also subject to reduction if the value of the house declines, say during a real estate slump."

Prop 13 has been very popular with residents but not so much with the CA govt and those who depend on taxes for their salary increases etc. It was a big concern for Gov Schwarzenegger when his financial consultant Warren Buffet said he would work against Prop 13. Arnold quickly put a stop to that kind of talk.

And, back to your posting, I also use aerial maps to look at a property's location, the way it fits into the neighborhood, how big the lot is, etc. I find it very useful.

If I buy a property and then renovate/remodel before placing it back on the market and you base an offer on what I paid I will just laugh at your offer.
I check what comparable upgraded houses i the area are going ofr and try very carefully to limit imprvementsd to remain within the prices already sold in the area for equivalent houses in the same condition.
Every once in a while an RE agent brings an offer based on my cost to buy. My RE broker presents them (she is required to ) but I have been known to simply draw a big X on the offer and add a note that is less than polite.
The value is based on what comparable houses in the same neighborhood have closed at. Tax appraisals ALWAYS lag since if they truly had 100% there would be a ton of challenges tothe assigned values.

I'm with brickeyee on this one, if I happen to make a good investment, make some improvements and someone brings me an offer based on the purchase price instead of the FMV, I'd reject the offer out right. I agree that Tax appraisals lag as well, at least in our area. The FMV of my home is certainly more than the tax appraiser has it listed. The only time that knowing what the seller paid for their home is relevant to me is in knowing if there is any wriggle room or not in the offer. If someone paid $300,00 for a home two years ago and now has it listed at $320,000 I know there is absolutely no wriggle room because after they pay commission they're basically walking away even.

I find it helpful to check with the auditor/etc before even calling an agent to see a place. Plus, its a good way to see if the agent will tell you the "truth" about everything else.

We looked at a listing on realtor.com that said the frontage was 184. There is a river behind the property and a pond across the street. It is right next to a new development. When I checked the auditor website, it said the legal front was 162. The "Effective" front 184. We asked what this meant. They said there is an easement along the side of the property because of the new development. Occasionally when it rains this pond overflows and needs a place to go so it doesn't flood the new houses. So it is diverted across the street alongside the property down to the river. It is right behind the garage. We noticed water in the crawl space and wondered where it came from. Now we know. We also thought we'd be able to put up a shed. No go. So much for truth in advertising. I think real estate listings should include easements.

It was exciting to go to Zillow.com and see my house from a bird's eye view. I was also able to edit and correct the information they provided. I don't agree with their valuation but it is the tax assessor's, not Zillow's (they said they didn't have enough info on the county yet).

I did detect that the aerial photos are over two years old (by the car parked in our driveway that we sold in early in 2004). Maybe other information is out of date as well!

I forgot to mention that the only improvements they consider or list are those that were made with a permit. If you made improvements but these weren't recorded with your city, Zillow won't know about them.

I also noted that the house across the street from mine had the highest value in the neighborhood. This house has changed hands four times since I moved here nine years ago - and of course the price recorded with the Tax Assessor goes up with each sale. That determines its tax value. Other houses with the same size, # of rooms, etc., haven't sold recently and show the value set the last time they were purchased.

I hadn't looked a Zillow in several months, since I first heard of the service. I just checked my address - they came up with a house in a neighboring town with a different zip code than mine.

Zillow doesn't include a big addition that we made 5 years ago, and we DID pull a permit. Also, they say we have an attached garage and our home is brick. Wrong on both counts.

Thanks everyone for your input. I was able to measure the dimension of my yard and it's as follows:

South 100' x West 113'8" x North 98' x East 102'

This should put it somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.26 (0.27) acres.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.