I never said the assessment is more accurate than Zillow - please quote my post where I said this. I said MLS comps are more accurate. Please proceed to refute. Regards,
Sure. MLS comps are a Realtor's bullshit attempt on tring to find out at what price to list your home. The most accurate assessment is an appraisal by a licensed appraiser. Zillow is a regional thing. It's accurate in some areas and not so accurate in others. I believe they have a section which details how confident they are about their numbers based on the market. I think Zillow does a great job at getting home and neighborhood data and analyzing that against recent transactions to come up with a decent attempt at value. Results vary by region but the site is far from trash. It is probably the most accurate resource available given its scope.
I call bullshit. I've seen years worth of crooked appraisals, part of the reason SE-Michigan is in the mess it's in. There's no single-source for getting an accurate picture, but I would trust the MLS data more then zillow any day.
The most accurate estimate of real estate worth is what someone is willing to pay, a recent sale price is usually dependable. (Iv'e had major disagreements with the county tax assessor over that point.) I would take an appraisal by an experienced, licensed independent appraiser who uses comparables in the same neighborhood as his starting point as next most reliable. The least reliable in my experience is an appraisal done in house by a lender. My experience is that the lender will determine how much you want to borrow and whether they want to loan you that much, and if they do, as if by magic the appraisal will come in right on the money. I've seen this happen with my own eyes. If the lender is going to keep the loan, they are loaning more on the basis of the credit worthiness of the borrower than on the true value of the collateral. If the lender is not keeping the loan, they really don't care what the true value of the collateral is, as long as they have a piece of paper signed by someone saying it is worth such and such. That has been my personal experience. Those practices are now coming back to bite the financial industry in the rear.
I think that it is funny how people say that people are not buying. It's just that the offers out there don't represent the current market price. It's really not a lack of buyers out there, it's a lack of sellers out there representing the current market price
Why not wait for the bank to list their properties, they have the best prices on MLS. At least 10-15% less then comps.
I should smile thats what happened with us. Our house fell through the first time someone tried to buy it at 189000 came in valued at 189. We came in couple months later and got it for 174000 value came in at 174. We have good credit and a 20% down payment. They just wanted the loan and knew how much the offer was, seems like.