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Dave Stallard wrote:

Hi Yury, 

It seems you have a problem with the price.  Can I assume you know the market in Strawberry? Can I assume you will not be making an offer?  Can I assume you just want to complain and waste my time?

Don't waste your time. Yury is one of the curmudgeons of MP. Good luck on selling your house.

I have never bought or sold a primary residence anywhere near 'zestimate' type estimates. I've always had places on acreage and the main thing estimates do it look at the square footage of the house and use a formula to compare that to other residences. Me and a lot of other people would rather have a 2,000' house on 10 acres than a 4,500' house on 1/2 acre (in the same area), but that is not accounted for accurately. Even a professional appraiser has challenges pricing our residences LOL. I've had good real estate agents who will sit and discuss the property and the market with me and ultimately let me decide on the offer price or listing price. A listing price is a best guess of what the seller thinks the house is worth / what someone will pay for it. Offers may come in above or below that.

Gloweringwrote:

Iand the main thing estimates do it look at the square footage of the house and use a formula to compare that to other residences.

In the past, z estimates mostly seem to estimate based on average price per square foot using comps from sold properties in the same or adjacent zip codes. so if you are in a location where the comps are mostly based on people who did extensive remodeling before putting their house on the market, and your house is in original condition, you may be disappointed by what your house fetches compared to the computer generated estimate.

In the future, these estimates may be able to factor in descriptors lifted from the listing description, but I don’t think that’s close yet. 

The Z estimate for our present house is much lower than what it would sell for if we put it on the market today.  I think they serve almost no purpose to the seller. Most people on the buy side will use a buyers agent and if you select one wisely, they typically will advise you of a competitive bid price.

In my lifetime I’ve bought 5 homes and sold 4.  These estimate things never factored into any offers made or accepted.  

A few years ago Zillow themselves tried to use their own “zestimate” values to make money by buying and flipping homes. It was so inaccurate that they lost a bunch of money and had to close the entire project. And this was in cookie-cutter suburbs.

My question to Dave is: how the heck did this place survive the Caldor fire? You must have had a direct line to God. (Does that special blessing convey?)

I did a quick 10min tour of this house when I was passing by the leap. I'll share some info I found and some of my own opinions.

The house is currently within 500ft of another air bnb. You have to jump on a waiting list if you plan to turn it into a vacation home rental (VHR.) If you live in the property full time and rent out the other rooms then you don't need a permit for VHR,  This info was directly from an agent at El Dorado County VHR division. 

House looked to be in great condition in the 10min I was walking through there. Needed minimal "work", if you could even call it that, more like touch ups. I did handy man/ construction work for a number of years. In the 10 minutes I was there I looked mainly for foundation issues, water pressure, leaky roofs/windows/doors, condition of roof, and rotting wood. All in acceptable condition by my standards. 

Dave was super chill. He answered all the questions I had quickly and (I felt) honestly. Seemed genuine. Would make a great neighbor/climbing partner based on vibes alone, imo. 

Glws Dave!