Can You Really Trust Online Home Estimates? For millions of homeowners, checking their Zillow Zestimate has become as routine as checking a stock portfolio—a quick hit of seeing your home's estimated value, right at your fingertips. With 178 million monthly users and over 100 million homes covered, the platform's instant, free, and convenient appeal is undeniable. But here's a famous cautionary tale: Spencer Rascoff, Zillow's former CEO, sold his own home for a staggering 40% less than its Zestimate. This story highlights a critical fact that many homeowners don't realize: Zillow itself calls its Zestimate a "starting point... not an appraisal" 1 . If the creator of the system can be off by that much, how accurate are online home valuations for the rest of us? Relying on an automated number for your most valuable asset could be a mistake worth tens of thousands of dollars. In this article, we'll examine how these powerful algorithms work, revea...