I'm looking for a home in the Tucson area.  In an effort to determine the value of the properties we've looked at, I visited zillow.com.  I compared the value for my last house to the sale price and it was within 5%.  

Realizing that the one comparison doesn't exactly give me enough data to determine the general overall accuracy of zillow's estimates, I'm looking for opinions regarding the accuracy of zillow and other similar websites that others here have used.

TIA

I have no idea... But I am sitting in a Real Estate office in Tucson As I type. In fact I just input 3 listings.

Quoted: I have no idea... But I am sitting in a Real Estate office in Tucson As I type. In fact I just input 3 listings.

So are you an agent or just someone's office biatch?

Quoted: Quoted: I have no idea... But I am sitting in a Real Estate office in Tucson As I type. In fact I just input 3 listings. So are you an agent or just someone's office biatch?

Neither I am the front desk bitch (on the weekends) so I'm subject to general abuse from the public. I don't really do much these days, phone doesn't ring often and there is only so much busy work for me to do. Plus I was told by my boss that I don't have to do any paperwork unless an agent gives it to me with instructions to do it. If they dont it goes into someone elses "In" box for monday.
I do however, know a lot of agents (I'm sure my mom would want me to plug for her since she is an agent, however shes not in town at the moment )

Quoted: Realizing that the one comparison doesn't exactly give me enough data to determine the general overall accuracy of zillow's estimates, I'm looking for opinions regarding the accuracy of zillow and other similar websites that others here have used. TIA

From playing around with zillow for fun (out of curiosity), I found it to be accurate in some cases, and wildly inaccurate in others.

But - that was a year or two ago - perhaps it is much better now.

Quoted:

From playing around with zillow for fun (out of curiosity), I found it to be accurate in some cases, and wildly inaccurate in others.

Same here.  Have used it to check out Tucson properties quite a bit.  Generally find it a pretty good way to quickly get some info. on a property, use it as a compilation of other avail. info (like assessor's site, etc.).  I find the values (if the property info. is accurate) are pretty good but don't consider property condition.

I did an online poll about this site, as well as among my own relatives (who mostly live around the St Louis area). From what I was told, Zillow's prices can be off by as much as 50%, both over and under.

If you have an area with a mix of different-sized houses, it seems to value a house party by what houses are nearby. It is most-accurate if you have a lot of nearly-identical-sized homes in one place, such as a subdivision or condos.
~

I know what you mean about propery condition.  We've been looking in the Foothills, Sabino Canyon and the area around Catalina Hwy.  I'd actually like to find a fixer upper that's priced as a fixer upper.  

A lot of the houses we've looked at so far appear to be "flip" houses with low quality cosmetic upgrades listed at a high quality price.  One house we looked at is listed for 120K more than it sold for in June 2005.  The upgrades were cheap and incomplete, probably costing well under 20K to complete.  The market in Tucson has cooled significantly since last summer, however most of these "flip" house investors are still looking to sell at last years prices.

Some of the houses in the Foothills that we've seen have spectacular views and the price of the home reflects the fact that the home is in a great location.  Other houses in the same area have no views whatsoever but are listed at the same price per square foot.