Kelly J.

Last week (8/28/18), Zillow's "Zestimate" of my home value was $562,147. I was getting ready to list my home, and I decided to give "Zillow Offer" a try. I completed the easy, online form that day, after which I received a phone call from one of their agents, Kate. Because I'd indicated on the application that I was working with a realtor, they needed to speak with my agent. I had my realtor call Kate at Zillow the next day to answer her questions. She was told that we would have a Zillow Offer by Friday, 9/1/18. I was out of town for the Labor Day weekend, but upon my return I found that Zillow had offered me $461,843 over $100,000 less than their "Zestimate". I checked Zillow again on 9/3/18 to find that Zillow had dropped their Zestimate of my home to $508,362; a $53,785 drop in value over the course of a few days!

I tried to call Kate at Zillow on 9/3/18 (which was Labor Day), and left a voice message asking for an explanation of this "suspicious" activity. I've watched Zillow for months and months now, and a fluctuation of a few hundred dollars over a week's time is not unusual, but we were talking about a 10% decrease! I did not hear from Kate as of Tuesday morning (9/4/18), so I called and left her another voice mail. After watching the value drop even further (now to $507,686) I tried to call again in the afternoon.

An agent named Cindy answered. She saw I had been working with Kate and asked if I wanted her to have Kate call me. She confirmed that Kate was working that day, but said they had been "busy." I told her no, that I'd already left two messages for her, and that I wanted to speak with someone who could actually help explain the situation, which I knew Kate could not do (she'd already informed me that she was not involved in the pricing/valuations). Cindy tried to assure me that the valuations were based on "an algorithm," and that the zestimates are constantly changing. I told her that I understood this, but that I know my home's area and I also had the comps for my home. I assured her that we did not have any recent closings that would cause my home to lose 10% of its value in a matter of days. Cindy said she would have a manager call me back.

Today is 9/5/18. Kate has not returned my calls. No manager has returned my calls. No one at Zillow has reached out to me. In the meantime, today Zillow's Zestimate shows that my home's value has dropped 10.2% in the past 30 days. The house next door to mine (which is my identical floor plan) has experienced a +0.6% increase in value over 30 days (and is valued at more than $50,000 over the current "value" of my home). Another home a few doors down (again, identical floor plan) has experienced a -0.5% decrease in value over 30 days, although it is valued at nearly $90,000 more than my home. If this is an algorithm at work, Zillow had better audit their software engineer's work! If a class-action suit is organized, sign me up.