Zillow is the original property estimator… so I’m confident you guys will keep a great product on the market.

Hey Donny, thanks for the info on realestateinvestor.com.

I’ve been watching them grow over the past several months and am liking what I see so far. They are excellent as a networking and social aspect of real estate investing… however, from what I can see the actual information (other than the excellent info written by the members) is somewhat lacking as of now.

I’ve worked with Colin and Ryan over there on the launch of their Short Sale Negotiation Service ( http://www.thereibrain.com/short-sale ) and they are great guys… have a great site so far… and I expect them to become a great resource for investors in 2008.

If you can’t tell already, I’m not afraid to point my readers to other investing sites (technically my competitors), if they are good resources.

My aim for The REI Brain is to help struggling and new real estate investors succeed… whether it’s from our site or not.

Keep the comments and discussion coming.

Hey everyone… what are your thoughts on Zillow, real quest, etc. and the accuracy of their values? Let us know!

- Trevor
The REI Brain
http://www.theREIbrain.com

FYI; we revamped Zestimate algorithms and published new Zestimates last week. As a part of that update, we now use supplemental and corrected data supplied by homeowners and listing agents to further improve Zestimate accuracy. Zestimate algorithms now incorporate 20X more statistical models.

If you get the chance, please compare the accuracy of these new Zestimate values with your other tools.

Thanks for letting me know your thoughts on http://www.realquest.com. That’s what our site is all about… we love it when people post their thoughts and experiences with the information we present.

Yes, these types of sites are somewhat useless for many situations, especially for real estate brokers. Real estate brokers need very precise property values to list a property.

As for real estate investors… these types of services (from my personal experience) are great for quickly analyzing a potential property to guage where an offer should be.

Of course, once we get a bit further down the line in the deal… I do go out and get better comps… but these sites work well for determining the kind of offer I need to make.

After using one of these services for a while… you’ll see about how accurate the site is… and you can go from there on your offer.

Yep… these sites have no clue about the inside of the property, which can make a huge difference in some properties.

As you’ve found out, there is no true replacement for a localized market analysis for a property… but in my opinion, when used correctly, these sites are a useful tool to help investors make quick decisions (when they become familiar with how the site really stacks up to your area).

Hey Pat, thanks again and be sure to bookmark our site.

- Trevor

P.S. – Pat pointed out a great reason that if you plan on using one of these online services for property values in your investing business… you really need to familiarize yourself with your area and your market values… so you can tell if the estimate is in the ball park. Also, get to know the site that you use, because after a while you can adjust the estimated property value according to your experience in its accuracy.

In some markets it could work, but not in a city with a lot of diversity in terms of property condition.

Thanks for the heads up on your site, http://www.housefront.com.

I had time to check it out… and I like what I see. It is very simple to use… very clean and clear look/feel.

I’ll have to dig into it a bit more to see how accurate it is… but it seems to be a decent tool for real estate investors.

One thing I would love to do is to do a few case studies w/ actual properties using Zillow, housefront.com, and realquest.com… to see which one consistently is accurate. I know realquest.com puts out pretty accurate values… but it would be interesting.

Thanks again. By the way, your blog is a fun read.

Cheers,

- Trevor
The REI Brain
http://www.thereibrain.com

Check out HouseFront, you can access similar information to realquest, but its free, and you can access it on your mobile.

Let me know how it works.

~ Stephen