If you Zillow Sanibel without using other resources to aid your island home search, you may be making a serious mistake.
I’m not a Zillow-hater, in fact, we advertise on Zillow and some of our clients are folks that started by using Zillow on Sanibel. But these home searchers are often misinformed with inaccurate ‘Zestimates™’, and even missing homes for sale!
Zillow Sanibel Zestimate™ Accuracy
Most of you know that Zillow’s Zestimate™ is simply a computer-based estimate and has a margin of error. What most people don’t understand is how wrong Zestimates™ can be on Sanibel.
There’s no way for Zillow to calculate a home’s current condition, amazing view, or recent upgrades in order to give an accurate home value. In reality, Zillow Sanibel Zestimates™ maybe even more misleading than average, since finding comparable homes is challenging in our specialized marketplace.
Zillow provides some insight on their Zestimate’s™ accuracy at the county level. For Lee County (where Sanibel Island is located), Zillow states that:
- 66% of the time, Zillow is more than 5% off
- 41% of the time, Zillow is more than 10% off
- 18% of the time, Zillow is more than 20% off
- All of which have a margin of error of 8% on top of that!
Lee County Zestimate™ Accuracy (as per Zillow 5/15/2016)
UPDATE (as per Zillow 5/21/2019)
- 29% of the time, Zillow is more than 5% off
- 15% of the time, Zillow is more than 10% off
- 7% of the time, Zillow is more than 20% off
- All of which have a margin of error of 3% on top of that!
Lee County Zestimate™ Accuracy (as per Zillow 5/21/2019)
Let’s apply these percentages to the average sales price on Sanibel to see in real dollars what these errors mean for the average Sanibel purchase:
Average Sanibel Sales Price for 2016 Q1 was $857,659
|
Zestimate™ Error |
How Often |
$ Amount |
|
More than 5% |
66.6% |
$42,883 |
|
More than 10% |
41.4% |
$85,766 |
|
More than 20% |
18% |
$171,532 |
Using Zillow’s own numbers, the Zestimate™ will be wrong by over $170,000, 18% of the time for an average Sanibel sale. This is huge.
UPDATED with 2019 Data
Average Sanibel Sales Price for 2019 was $853,827
|
Zestimate™ Error |
How Often |
$ Amount |
|
More than 5% |
29% |
$42,691 |
|
More than 10% |
15% |
$85,382 |
|
More than 20% |
7% |
$170,765 |
Using Zillow’s own numbers, the Zestimate™ could still be wrong by over $170,000.
But now, it’s only 7% of the time, as opposed to 18% of the time, like in 2016.
How Did Zillow Actually Do for Our Clients?
The numbers above are based on Sanibel averages. However, I wanted to see how Zillow stacked up for our own Sanibel clients. Below are the results for our first four sales in March 2016.
|
Property |
Zestimate™ |
$ Amount |
|
1113 Sand Castle Road |
10% |
+$66,000 |
|
1605 Middle Gulf Drive #317 |
17% |
-$200,000 |
|
3131 W Gulf Drive #306 |
29% |
+$520,000 |
|
585 E Gulf Drive A2 |
37% |
+$364,000 |
The Zestimates™ for these homes are so inaccurate that they only confuse home buyers. I feel that Zillow is breaking their public trust by publishing such inaccurate data. In my opinion, Sanibel home buyers and sellers that review Zestimates™ are being seriously misinformed.
UPDATED with 2019 Data
It’s only fair to look at some of the sales we had in 2019 to compare how the Zestimates™ differed.
|
Property |
Zestimate™ |
$ Amount |
|
585 Lake Murex Cir, Sanibel, FL |
6% |
+$36,100 |
|
5407 Osprey Court, Sanibel, FL |
16% |
+$240,000 |
|
844 Lindgren Blvd, Sanibel, FL |
0% |
$0 |
|
651 E Gulf Dr, 114, Sanibel, FL |
0% |
$0 |
While the Zestimates™️ have become more accurate, most with an error under 10%, you can see some properties still have swings of $95k- $270k in the actual sales price vs Zestimate™️. For the last two properties, Zillow updated it’s Zestimate to match the sales price, which is good on them. But we listed what they had the Zestimate™️ at just a month or so prior, just so you can see how much of a swing the Zestimates™️ can have at any given month.
You May Miss Your Ideal Home Using Zillow on Sanibel
Ok, so maybe you ignore the Zestimate™ and the Zestimate™ Range, Zillow still provides a great property search, right?
Well, if you are casually checking out the market, then it may be OK. But Zillow is missing a number of homes that are for sale, and some of the current information is stale.
If you are serious about finding a home, you may miss out. You see, Zillow does NOT have the same information as Realtors and the MLS. I spent a few minutes checking out listings available on Zillow with our site, www.SanibelRealEstateGuide.com (which has ALL homes for sale in Sanibel and Captiva Islands MLS). I found listings on our site that were not on Zillow.
As you can see below, if you only used Zillow when searching for homes on Sanibel, you would miss out on these two great Sanibel properties, and possibly miss the best deal for you!
Final Thoughts…
My goal is not to stop you from using Zillow if you like it, but instead brought to mind a few important factors to be aware of when you Zillow Sanibel. I think it’s great to use multiple resources when searching for your perfect piece of paradise, however, I want our customers to know that not everything they see on Zillow is “the end all be all” as they say. If you are serious about finding a home, other sites may be a better resource.
That’s the benefit of working with a Realtor® or searching on our website! We have total MLS access and the ability to provide you with the most accurate, up-to-date and relevant information to help find you the best deal and property here on Sanibel and Captiva. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns you have about your home search!
