Zoopla Valuations

alfagtv

Lots of interesting points on here but I have done some research with zoopla answering my questions to validate the principles

it is a model and is only as accurate as the inputs. In some places it will be more accurate than others but it does not take in to consideration anything that falls outside of the standard data they can produce on things like sold prices, market forces, demand etc so the moment your house has an extension, you buy land, you add parking etc... the valuation is meaningless as that isn’t considered. The issue I have is that things like this influence what a customer is prepared to pay and what the estate agent will market the property for so inadvertently, zoopla could be driving the price you sell your house for up or down. If up, great for the seller, if down great for the buyer but that wouldn’t represent true market value. In my case, they have put a price on my house that is estimated to be 7% more than my neighbours yet my house is double the size and with twice the land. I stressed this with zoopla and their answer was to exclude my house from the valuation. They don’t take responsibility for their valuation and make it the homeowners issue. I think it is totally unacceptable and I wonder how many people will suffer as a result. Something has to be done about this and I am sure that is why other property websites don’t do it

Sistergold

alfagtv said:

Lots of interesting points on here but I have done some research with zoopla answering my questions to validate the principles

it is a model and is only as accurate as the inputs. In some places it will be more accurate than others but it does not take in to consideration anything that falls outside of the standard data they can produce on things like sold prices, market forces, demand etc so the moment your house has an extension, you buy land, you add parking etc... the valuation is meaningless as that isn’t considered. The issue I have is that things like this influence what a customer is prepared to pay and what the estate agent will market the property for so inadvertently, zoopla could be driving the price you sell your house for up or down. If up, great for the seller, if down great for the buyer but that wouldn’t represent true market value. In my case, they have put a price on my house that is estimated to be 7% more than my neighbours yet my house is double the size and with twice the land. I stressed this with zoopla and their answer was to exclude my house from the valuation. They don’t take responsibility for their valuation and make it the homeowners issue. I think it is totally unacceptable and I wonder how many people will suffer as a result. Something has to be done about this and I am sure that is why other property websites don’t do it

True market value? Is it not what people agree to pay? If getting a mortgage the lender will also value to make sure the house is worth that, so it’s not that it’s all about zoopla. It’s all here-say no matter what all just a game of chase and we all have to play otherwise you stay on the roadside maybe? 

Sistergold

I have found zoopla to be bang on within range. The range has always been very wide within the street it’s all educated guesswork work I guess. 

ElephantBoy57

AdrianC said:

Well, the range they give for this place is definitely likely to cover the actual value...
Their current estimate is 106%-160% of the 2013 sale price...

The range for my house is £127- £155, which is about right. I was surprized recently, that some houses close to me had increased in value, they were for sale for £140k and £150k. Both sold within a week or so.

They dont have a recent sold price for my house, but the houses with a recent sold price, their valuation is narrower.

TBagpuss

It does seems to take into account sold prices of nearby homes - My house is a 3-bed ex-council semi but there is a lot of variation on the street I live on -  . The old vicarage (Which is a lovely property) sold for £1.4M a couple of years ago and according to Zoopla, my house's value went up by £50K over night. Which of course it hadn't, but the vicarage sale obviously pushed up the average property price for our post code! I would assume that it would be more accurate for properties on housing estates with lots of very similar properties

alfagtv

Amazingly quick responses to this thread!

I think most have tried to argue for Zoopla as well which is rather coincidental given my complaint to them just this morning!

anyway, I think the above misses the point. I could come up with a data spreadsheet tomorrow and publish it online and show a range of pricing from x to y based on recent sold prices, and current advertised prices and it would be broadly as accurate as the Zoopla one but that wouldn’t make it accurate.  Stands to reason that if zoopla say between £120k and £150k for a house that the buyer would look to pay £120k even if the estate agent valued it at £150k. It also stands to reason if a new home or a house that hadn’t been sold for a while and had a valuation from an estate agent that they would use the model and again value the property inaccurately of the model didn’t reflect the market. This isn’t me saying I don’t like the valuation that Zoopla has given my house. This is me saying that it has categorically got either mine or the rest of the streets pricing fundamentally wrong. Therefore it is highly likely that multiple houses are sold at less value than they are worth

if you think that stating a from and too price is helpful then good luck to you but if people are paying too much or too little based on Zoopla model then that should be investigated. Another way of looking at this is that if the Zoopla model doesn’t influence buyers and sellers significantly then why have it

Slithery

alfagtv said:

Stands to reason that if zoopla say between £120k and £150k for a house that the buyer would look to pay £120k even if the estate agent valued it at £150k.

You are making the massive assumption that people believe Zoopla to be accurate. They don't.

Buyers value property by comparing it to the recent sold prices of comparables.

SpiderLegs

When people who develop systems say something ‘is only as good as the inputs...’, what they are actually telling you is they have spent a lot of time developing a pile of crap that doesn’t  work and they need an excuse to justify their wasted effort.

alfagtv

Slithery said:

alfagtv said:

Stands to reason that if zoopla say between £120k and £150k for a house that the buyer would look to pay £120k even if the estate agent valued it at £150k.

You are making the massive assumption that people believe Zoopla to be accurate. They don't.

Buyers value property by comparing it to the recent sold prices of comparables.

Unfortunately that is unlikely to be true. Where there are a lot of similar houses available a comparison can be made I.e. a two bed flat in a block of similar flats however, where the properties become more unique ie a cottage, a self build, a specific location or specific view, a lot of people use data like Zooplas as houses of a similar nature in a similar area only come up every two/three years so the comparisons are out of date and can’t be made.  Our estate agent confessed to using it to help come up with an appropriate price where the above situations occur

badger09

I've never paid any attention to Zoopla's estimated value, but just looked at my immediate neighbourhood and had a good chuckle.

Value of ours has a £54k spread, but the Price Estimate is just £3k short of what it is marked STC at, and £8k short of the  highest 'best & final' offer we received. Coincidence?

One of our neighbours has a £200k spread! with a Price Estimate of £501k, bang in the middle. 

It said it couldn't provide estimates for our 2 closest neighbours, one of which sold in February for almost a million (complete rebuild on a huge plot), or the other which must be worth well over a million (a large 'country house' type with separate 2 bed barn conversion & land). 

PS we're one of the poor relations in this area