Errors in Estimating Effectively

 In News

Note-Buying-Property-Value-300x216The Internet is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Containing million of hours of funny cat videos, thousands of Facebook posts from your Aunt Judy, and hundreds of blogs from your favorite real estate agency (that’s us). The Internet can bring great content, and can also be used as a valuable tool for real estate—all you need for an estimate on a house is to plug a house into a search bar, and dozens of prices come up. However, these estimates can often produce an incorrect pricing of a house, making the deal seem bigger or smaller than it actually is. This week, we’re going to tell you how to spot a potentially incorrect estimate, and how to get an accurate one in a few minutes flat.

Remember, the golden rule with estimates—if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.

The first step in determining estimation accuracy is to check out the percent error real estate search websites have when calculating. Such websites, such as Zillow.com, will have a tab written in very small font at the bottom of the websites, labeled “estimates”, or in this case “zestimates”. If you click on that link, and then find our state, the website will tell you the percent error in calculating price. For example, Zillow.com has a percent error for Salem County at 10%, and Gloucester County at 6.3%. Now, these may not seem like big percentages right off the bat, but when dealing with a home listed at $250,000, it can be anywhere from a $16,000—$25,000 increase or decrease. Now, the price ranges from $234,000—275,000, and a margin of error of $41,000 can easily turn you off to that home.

The only way to have a true, reasonable, and sound estimate is to walk into our office and sit down with any one of our accredited agents. They will gladly give you an estimate on a house, whether buying or selling, and we promise it will be accurate. Remember, no one knows the area better than the locals, and since our agents live in the region you are looking to buy or sell in, they know the ins and outs of the real estate economy like the back of their hand. You can never fully trust what you see on the internet, but we guarantee that you can fully trust any of our agents.

Just walk on in, and we’ll take care of the rest.

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