Every so often I check on Zillow and my house lists differently each time. I go by current sale lists in my neighborhood to know what is really going on.

But, if you want to get an idea for the appearance of a house or building, specifically the street, it can be useful. I often did this when my DD's looked to places to live while in college. Also, while looking to buy property you can see an overview. Again, it can be wrong, and I take it with a grain of salt.

I've purchased a few houses...ya all know that...

Zillow takes their info off the county tax accessors site in your area. That site tells everything including how much your loan was for, the points you paid, ect. The number of rooms....isn't the number you yourself count....BTW. AND...it's ALL on public record. Before the internet I went to the library and looked it up on microfiche.

You can log into Zillow, claim the property and make changes to their facts, add or delete pictures.

If they under value your home or the number of rooms, you may want to leave it. The tax accessor charges higher taxes on larger square footages. I'm not trying to fool anyone, but maybe I don't need to correct them either. :0)

Here's an example of what a tax accessor listing looks like in Colorado:

http://land.elpasoco.com/

Sample data: 125 to 865 Mead

Just checked and mine is not listed. It did have the house just down the road from me that recently listed. I am out in the country on a farm.

I actually thought they had my number of bedrooms wrong? I don't count the front "bedroom" because it has no closet and it must be only 8 or 10 feet wideXlong? Wonder if the tax group agrees with me? It'll never have a closet. There is no room for one. I am thinking of building the upstairs room a closet. They finished the entire upstairs (which is a half of floor. That's another thing they have wrong on Zillow. They list it as two stories. In your dreams!) with nowhere to store anything?! I guess one bedroom with one walk in closet is supposed to suffice for the entire household. Crazy house flippers ;) not like you and me nicole. We'd know it was just good sense to have some place to store things up there and would only be lumber and time.

zillow says my house is almost 1700 sq feet. It's only 1400. Other sites have other people living in my house. People who have never lived in my house. I even get mail addressed to someone multiple people with my last name, even my ex and his twin brother who never lived in my house.

25 years ago, when I purchased the house I live in, the accessor said my house was larger than it is. A month later I called and made an appointment with one of them. I had the whole house graphed out with inside the wall measurements(I have 19 angles to my house, it's not just a box I can measure from the outside). Sat with the guy for an hour. He tried to talk me out of changing my listings square footage and lowering the value of the home based on surrounding homes in the same zip code( my zip code has some lower end homes, not custom or sitting on acreage). He said they were charging me for the 22' high ceilings, gas units he said. I cut my taxes in HALF!!!!

We have laws in place that only allow property taxes to be raised 10% a year unless a new tax is voted through. Took 20 years to get the tax back up to where it was! :0)

Rob333.....1/2 a level is called a "level" here. 2 levels would be correct. A bedroom with a window & no closet "is" a bedroom. Without the window, it's an office.

Everyone's house is on Zillow AND Trulia.

Not true in TN, Nicole. To be a bedroom, it must have A) a window, B) a smoke detector, and C) a closet. Doncha love B? It doesn't have to have a finished floor, but it must have a smoke detector. HA!

Uh-oh . . . it appears my bed is not in a bedroom! No closet.

Only if you were in TN Alisande ;)

Whew!

The picture of my house on Zillow (which comes from Google) is funny. My old car is still in the driveway. I sold that three years ago. The picture was taken in spring, so the yard looks pretty, but at the time I was choosing shingles for a new roof. There are three different samples nailed to the roof to help me decide. Looks very strange.

Our house is 'there', but only a Google-car picture from the street that shows *none* of our home, just the arborvitae along the front parkway. There are aerial views available. The whole Google Earth thing is an invasion of privacy.

When we ordered air conditioning for our condo, the salesman told me he loved the 'country lane' where we live in Illinois. He straight out said he had Googled us!

I'm searching for that extra square footage that Zillow claims my home has. 4,300 sq ft, is almost twice what it actually is. The zestimate is higher, too. Time to put the house on the market! :)

chisue - I would be freaked out by that. Kind of stalkerish to me. I really don't want to be part of a world where there is zero privacy. Don't really want the alternative either, though. lol

Here's a photo of our house. LOL they don't have a lot of info since we built the house and they don't have the acreage right, it's off by half.

My comment isn't about Zillow, but our county auditor. I looked on line at the picture they have of my house and it happened to have been taken at Halloween and I had all my decorations out. LOL Gravestones, cobwebs and skeletons!! I sent the county an email asking to have the picture retaken, since it was now in the spring when the flowers are blooming and they did!!! I was so pleased that they responded in such a nice and timely way.

I need to get a P.O. Box instead of providing our home address! When we moved in, one of our neighbors warned us about the Address Tax here. We didn't understand him then, but now we do...oh, we DO!

Its there but totally inaccurate. It says I have 4 baths, -- Bedrooms and over 3,000 sq feet. I don't think we need to worry :^D

Hi Joann_Fla,

That's ... like ... 4 baths ... all in one day?

o j

It told me that my house was a two bedroom - there's only one. And it said it was built in 1900 and remodeled in 1925. It's a one room schoolhouse from the 1880's and was made into a house in appx. 1940. And it's worth $94,000!!? Yeah RiGHT.

Nothing on mine is right, they even have it located about 2 blocks from where it actually is and on the opposite side of the street. The square footage is wrong, and the number of rooms is totally wrong.

Google Earth, mapping and real estate sites have been with us for quite a while--not getting the suddenly "scary stuff" factor.

Public records are public records, there's nothing new in that world at all. The computer age may have made access faster and easier but all that stuff (especially concerning real estate) has always been available for anyone who wanted to see it. Before, it required a visit to the government office. Now, not so much.

As for mapping, sat photos, street views, etc., I'd never want to go back to how it was before. If someone wants to see what's in my backyard or on my deck, I don't know why they'd care but they're more than welcome to look.

I have to agree with gyr_falcon and Snidely.

I don't need to get out my tin foil hat because people can see a satellite image of my house.

My only concern personally is how they accessed the data to begin with as my personal home is NOT available from public records, so how exactly did they get the info?

If you go to my local tax appraisers office and search my home, either by last name or by physical address, you won't find it. As far as publicly accessible records, it doesn't exist. How then did these companies get the data?

At least the records accessible from sites like Zillow and Trulia don't show owner info, which is why we are blocked from public access records to begin with.

Chisue- if your records work anything like ours here in Texas, a PO Box won't stop anything.

You are easily found regardless of what address you put down. If you own property in that county, you are listed publicly as the owner, even if you list a different address.

Texas? how is your home not available to the tax appraisers? I don't understand that at all.

Hmmmm, all it showed was a line for my driveway, but said no matches found, try zooming in for more information. I zoomed in, and it shows our house and garage, but not a secondary driveway we put in several years ago. However, it still says no results, try zooming OUT for more info! lol

If you want a real eye opener, go to Google Maps and put in your address. Change the map to the satellite view, zoom in.

gyr falcon - I don't get from which you are reading the suddenly "scary stuff" into these postings.

I'm glad to see that some of you are open and accepting of such invasion of privacy. Will you soon be posting that you don't have a problem with those drones that are peeking in your windows? They're only there to gather information. How large is the master bedroom? Does the house have a hall closet and an eat-in kitchen?

Just kidding, sort of. I don't like all this close up satellite mapping and aerial photography and the use of drones. Real estate companies will say that the First Amendment gives them the right to obtain information, but where does their rights end and mine begin? There's a reason I have a privacy fence around my property. It's MY sanctuary. MINE. I don't care to share.

Rob- a household member is in law enforcement. The tax assessor won't release our records to the public.

Ah. To the public. That I get.

I thought you meant not at all, not even to them. Got it.

__________________________

moonie, I've heard a court ruling saying if you're in the public's eye, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. If it can be seen, it can be photographed. It was about filming police arresting, etc., but I can see how it's applicable in this instance (what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Laws work that way)?

Not that I like it all!

Just along the theme of a lack of privacy....when my elderly neighbors on the corner had passed and their heirs listed the house for sale, the house showed up like we've been discussing on Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, all the others. But in the photo taken from the front, a woman at the fence between that house and the one next door was visible, my other neighbor Catherine. She was in her own yard, looking toward the camera, undoubtedly wondering who was there taking a photo, always aware as to what was going on in the neighborhood ;-)

My house is listed. I'm still looking for the fireplace they claim I have. LOL

The house that was our home for many years is listed there but no picture. They say it is a Townhouse, built in 1927. Really? They built Townhouses then? I know a lady who was born in that house in 1922, and she told me the whole history of it, but I don't remember the year it was built. Zillow says it is one floor; actually it is 2. The house has been sold twice since I sold it and it has been "modernized." All the original charm is gone.

Moonie_57, "scary stuff" were the exact words used in several posts upstream.

Mine isn't listed. It appears that they haven't found Canada yet. Good

I just looked for the little house in PA we bought as a weekend place when we lived in Manhattan. We paid $8,000 for it (on two acres) in 1968, and I was curious to see how much Zillow says it's worth today. But I couldn't find it. I found the road, which is a lot more populated than it was back then. And I found a garage that looks like the one my DH built by himself. But not the house. It might have been completely remodeled, with additions. Everything changes....

gyr falcon - I see that now. My apologies! Reading through the replies I never got a sense that posters were frightened. Guess I should read more thoroughly!

I'm not frightened. I'm annoyed. The A/C guy thousands of miles away can find my neighborhood on the web and easily make a judgement that he can charge us more, cased on that. (Actually, the house he saw on the street view belongs to our next-door neighbor. It's twice the size of ours. We are the 'small potatoes' here.)

My house is worth less on Zillow than 2 other sites...

chisue, is that any different than when you call out a workman to quote a project at your main house? I think it's reasonable to expect that prices vary by neighborhood - I experience the same thing but accept there's little I can do about it besides getting a few quotes for bigger ticket projects. Whether this guy's follow-up was done to be nosey or for a sense of the economic standing of distant owners, it's to be expected.

I'm not going to make an excuse for what the guy in Maui did, but to me his mistake was to tell you.

Oh, gosh moonie_57, no need to apologize. People pick up on different segments and impressions when reading many, or long, posts. I just took it as a request for clarification of what I posted. I believe only the Hot Topics forum quizzes members about thread content. ;)

Well, my house has been quoted to me to be between 68 for low, and 92 for high, thus, I am ok with what Zillow says. I am not yet in the market to sell, but glad, to see it on Zillow. People interested in houses, can check that first, before going to the county assessors site and verifying. This is what I did, to find my house.

Snidely -- It's TMI. When you provide your address, people familiar with the area recognize a town or an area within that town. It's generalized. Google Earth makes it possible for anyone to see your specific property in detail. This is very different from someone recognizing your zip code.

On the Maui travel forums we caution visitors to keep valuables out of sight in their cars: "Don't open the trunk, displaying your luggage, then go off to the beach." I don't want to 'display' my home.

I understand your sentiment. I think the expectation of immediate and easy access to information is the new normal, today's reality. Lot's of available "information" is wrong, that's also the new normal. Think of how often you see people talking and someone pulls out a cell phone to check something or do a search about what was being discussed. I do that myself, probably because of my pedantic streak.

It's all public information. This barn door can't be closed, whether there's still time or it's too late, because there isn't one.

My house picture on Zillow says it was updated this year but has a picture of the Blazer we sold years ago, the trees aren't as tall and unfortunately there's a lot of weeds in the front....sometimes they show the house next door...

There's a local company, roofing I think, that uses the ability to see your home and give an immediate estimate as a selling point. No need to make an appointment and wait. Instant gratification.

I got a picture of my house in the mail from one of those roofing companies with a quote for replacing the roof. I don't need a new one, but it was a very reasonable price!! :)

We're on Zillow, but says the lot is 44 sqf. Well, it's realy 108' X 400', a bit more than 44sqf. Also, it shows we paid $157,000 in 1978 and that is off by $40,000! No other info on it, thank goodness.

Yes, my house is on Zillow. Wrong square footage, but it's there, with accurate last date of sale (to me). Can't see much from the overhead photo, due to trees. Good.

(I retain the option to streak in my own backyard, should I ever so desire!!!)

Nothing at all for future homestead, including for the lot. Not yet, anyway.