bostonbubble.com

Brian C · Guest

http://predict.ziprealty.com/

Think you know the market? Well check this site out and prepare to low-ball!

It will give you a set of houses and you predict how much its going to sell. Based on what the value you set, it will determine your Property IQ.

I went into a town that I viewed almost every property in my price range (Norwood) and played the game. Almost every single prediction was way below that ZipRealty expects it to sell for.

So whats your IQ?

Renting in Mass · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:08 pm GMT Post subject:

It's too bad the site doesn't let you set some parameters for the types of houses that it asks you to price. If someone is in the marker for a million dollar house, it doesn't make sense to ask them about the value of a one bedroom condo. They probably aren't very familiar with that market. I've skipped past 7 houses now, and haven't seen anything that's even close to the market I'm familiar with.

Chuck · Guest

Now that you have made your predictions, the fun is in watching how your estimates compare to what the crowd thinks over time. In the game, Zip is not stating anything about what it thinks the home will sell for. It is all in the hands of the players. The price starts at the listing price. Time will tell where it ends up.

Chuck

Chuck · Guest

Renting in Mass:

Good feedback. We wanted to keep the search process simple and based on location to start. We can add home parameters later.

Renting in Mass · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:39 pm GMT Post subject:

It would be ideal if there was a Predict button on the My Homes page. That way I could make prediction on the houses I'm actually tracking (and know the most about). Is that possible?

dtremit · Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Somerville, MA

Nearly everything in my area seems to assume a sale price of list or 1% below list. It's either a lack of data or gaming of the system by agents, I expect.

Renting in Mass · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:50 pm GMT Post subject:

I think it's a lack of data. I'm guessing they just rolled this out. All the prices start at the list price, so they haven't moved very much.

Chuck · Guest

Prices will start moving as more players come in. We run the Prediction engine every 15 minutes. Stick with it and let us know what you like or don't like.

Guest · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 6:04 am GMT Post subject:

john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

The market price is really based on what someone will really pay for it. I mean we weigh a ton of criteria and settle in on what we'll be willing to pay. Without this due dilligence and a real commitment to actually put yourself on the line, it might not provide the filter necessary to keep out someone who say might want to leave a false impression about a place...

One thing I would say would make this more credible is to only let people vote on properties that were real buyers, meaning they filled out an application online and forwarded a preapproval letter to the administrators for the amount of the sale price and they were willing to let the listing agent contact them. Basically, it would be a website that would be for people that would say, "Contact me if you ever think about selling it at this price point". That, would be more credible to me and actually useful to all parties.

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

Yes but then no one would use the website. Also, even having submitted an offer doesn't reflect what you are willing to pay. That is brought out through negotiation.

john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

Haaah, you got me...