I got a call yesterday from a prospect and he said he went to Zillow and that house is worth $450,000.

Well, I knew the particular house he was talking about was worth more than $450,000. He had “zillowed” it and found out what he thought it was worth.

We use Zillow all the time to find out values of property in the “real world.” However, it doesn’t seem to work on Hilton Head. I think I have figured out why.

For instance, when I first moved to Hilton Head, I lived on Governors Lane in Sea Pines. The right side of the road backed up to Greenwood Drive. It had no view. The left side of the road had beautiful fairway views. The houses on the left side of the road normally sold for twice as much as the houses on the right side of the road. Since Zillow uses an averaging procedure, it would mean that the houses on the right side of the road would be worth more on Zillow that they are really worth and houses on the left side of the road would be worth less.

In the real world, most subdivisions were built about the same time and most values have an approximate same value. Therefore, it works in those areas. For example, in BrentHaven Subdivision in Brentwood, TN, most of the houses in that subdivision have a very similiar price. They were built aroudn the same time. They are about the same size and all of the lots are about the same value.

In Hilton Head, our market is substaintially different because of the lot value. Obviously waterfront homes in Wexford Plantation will sell for more than fairway homes, even if they are on the same street, with the same square footage, built the same year.

Another example would be Calibogue Cay in Sea Pines. The houses on the left side of the street have a much better view than the houses on the right side. Therefore, the averages don’t work.

I do think this is a good system for 95% of the locations. However, it does not seem to work for the Hilton Head market!