Off-market estimate spread
An automated estimate is far tighter on a listed home than on one that is not. This takes the figure showing on the portal and returns the band Zillow's own accuracy page puts around it.
Before the listing appointment
Your seller already has a number, and it came from the least accurate version of it
is the published median error on an off-market home
$400,000 × 7.20% median off-market error
Zillow reports roughly 1.74% median error on-market and 7.20% off-market; Redfin reports 1.93% and 7.44%. Median means half of homes are further out than this, not that this is the worst case.
We do not build valuation models and we are not arguing the estimate is wrong. The argument is narrower: the portal publishes its own accuracy, almost nobody reads it, and the width of that band on a single house is usually larger than the commission being negotiated over. How to use it before a listing appointment is in the Zestimate post.
The number is the easy part. The follow-up is the work.
A seller who says they will think about it goes back to the same number. We build the follow-up that keeps the band in front of them and stops the moment they reply.
See what we build for real estate