Zillow is a popular tool for buyers and sellers searching online to find the value of a particular property. If all homes were built by the same builder and of the same quality that may be the perfect tool. As with any electronic or general comparison tool that is not done ‘by-hand’ I have found that it has issues and shortcomings (but then people do too)….. 

What do I mean with that? As a licensed Jupiter Florida real estate agent, I was creating a comparable market analysis (CMA) for a buyer of a single family home in Tequesta, Florida. There were several recent comps in the multiple listing service (MLS). I looked further into the tax records and saw that another property had sold privately. The home that had sold privately appeared to be owned by two individuals who were probably related. Each owner already owned half the home so when one of them bought the other one out the price was recorded as 50% of the home value. That home was then a comparison for future sales on Zillow, via the tax records and other automated systems. I am not for or against Zillow or similar companies in any way. This is simply an observation of what can happen when relying on automated tools and not real people.