Jun 14, 2026
Whether you’ve lived in your house for one year or 20, you’re probably curious about your home’s value. Online sites like Zillow offer a chance to check, but what happens if your “Zestimate” (Zillow’s estimate of home value) seems off?
Let’s pretend, for example, that Sarah owns a home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Zillow estimates that Sarah’s home is worth $1.5 million, but homes in her area are typically selling for $800,000 or less. She’s worried that Zillow is overinflating the value of her property, and she’d really like to fix it.
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So, is Sarah’s estimate accurate, and what can she do if it isn’t?
Are Zestimates accurate?
Zillow explains on its site that its Zestimate is based on publicly available data, MLS data, and user-submitted details. All of this information is input into the company’s proprietary home-valuation model.
Zillow’s website suggests this approach works well and that its Zestimate is pretty good. The company says its error rate is 1.76% for homes on the market and 7.22% for off-market homes. Unfortunately, in the real world, some people like Sarah have found their home values to be pretty far off. And there are good reasons as to why that may be the case.
One big problem with Zestimates is that they don’t necessarily have all the details.
“I don’t put much weight on Zestimate prices,” Jane Katz, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Warburg, told MoneyWise. “I often find them inaccurate, and they don’t take into account the nuances of the neighborhood, block, and home conditions.”
Zillow may also not know about improvements.
“They don’t have information about renovations, property improvements, cosmetic improvements, and additions that significantly affect property value,” added Adjina Dekidjiev, a real estate broker at Coldwell Banker Warburg.
Some improvements are also subjective.
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“I always ask a homeowner, ‘When Zillow came over, what did they think of the kitchen?’” Jeff Lichtenstein, CEO and broker at Echo Fine Properties, told MoneyWise. “The problem is, there are so many variables that go into a valuation. Was the kitchen renovation pretty? Sometimes money is put into a home that was for pure enjoyment. You might like orange granite, but most don’t, and that investment becomes a negative.”
Sarah should know that Zillow is working off of potentially incomplete details, and that may be one reason why her valuation just doesn’t match up.
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How can you tell if your Zestimate is off?
So, how can you tell if your Zestimate is off?
“The easiest way to tell if it’s off is looking at other homes in your neighborhood that have sold,” advised Michael Perna, leader of The Perna Team Realtors, in an email interview with MoneyWise. “If they’re lower than your Zestimate, you’re running high right now.”
If there aren’t a lot of sales in your area, Zillow may also be comparing your home with the wrong types of property.
“Low recent comp activity or a lot of variability in home condition on the same street seem to be two market conditions where Zestimates are most often high,” said Levi Rodgers, a real estate broker, co-founder of VA Loan Networks, and a member of Zillow’s Agent Advisory Board.
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Rodgers said you could tell if Zillow was off by looking at the comparable homes Zillow lists on your house’s page to see if the wrong kind of sales are being used.
“A four-bedroom new construction on your street doesn’t usually comp well with your 1985 ranch, even if it is the same square footage,” Rodgers explained. “Your Zestimate is too high if almost all of the comps Zillow is using for it are newer, bigger, or remodeled, and yours is not.”
Since Sarah’s Zestimate is higher than she thinks it should be, this may be a function of Zillow comparing her property to newer, more updated homes in the area.
What should you do if your Zestimate is wrong?
While Sarah certainly has reason to believe her Zestimate is incorrect, the big question is, what can she do?
“The biggest issue with an inaccurate Zestimate is that it can create false expectations when a homeowner is preparing to list their property,” Michael Reisor, a Compass real estate agent, told MoneyWise. “Some people worry that taxing authorities could use a Zestimate to determine property taxes, but we do not have any concrete evidence that this happens.”
Now, Sarah may still want to try to fix it, and she does have an option to try to make it more accurate. She can claim her home and update the details as a starting point.
But beyond that, she’s probably out of luck. In fact, people have actually sued Zillow in response to estimates they viewed as inaccurate, but the lawsuits have been unsuccessful. And there would be very little for Sarah to gain from going to all that trouble.
“I would just ignore it,” Nicholas DeLotell, a New York City real estate broker with Sotheby’s International Realty, told MoneyWise. “I rarely see buyers use the Zestimate as a baseline to negotiate a deal. I have noticed that typically, when you list a property, the Zestimate fluctuates to be more in line with the asking price.”
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Christy Bieber has 15 years of experience as a personal finance and legal writer. She has written for many publications including Forbes, Kilplinger, CNN, WSJ, Credit Karma, Insurify and more.
