According to Alex Veiga in a resent article for the Associate Press, there is a large percentage of error in value estimating of similar home sales.  In light of the recent home sales fiasco, anxious home owners are visiting on line web sites to find current home values of their homes.

 

These sites such as, Zillow, Cyber Homes and others tend to give valuable information on a neighborhood and are helpful in giving information about an area.  They can also tell which homes have sold when and at what price.  However, it can cause a searcher to take the information a little too seriously.  Experts have found that the information will have huge errors in them.

 

These sites generate their information by computer-generated “automated valuation models” to come up with their estimates.  The different models can lead to disparities-sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars from one site to the next.

 

This is because relevant data such as whether a home owner has made significant improvements, such as, a state of the art kitchen, landscaping, location, lot size and taxes are not included in their estimates.

 

In California where data is easier to come by, not all sites agree on even the fundamental details of a home – never mind the value.  Marty Frame, general manager of Cyberhomes.com, says the data on the site are best used as a way to form an overall impression of a neighborhood or a property and gives some idea of value.

 

Should you need more information about property values in the Truckee, Lake Tahoe region, you are invited to contact the Schaller Family Realtors at 800-660-0903 or visit www.alltruckeehomes.com