According to Redfin, their estimates are accurate to approximately 76% within 5% of the sale price of listed homes. By comparison, Zillow says it is 82% accurate to within 5% of the sale price of listed homes. That's a difference of approximately 6.5 percentage points for Redfin listed homes, compared to Zillow. Nationally, Zillow is a little more accurate than Redfin.
However, its accuracy varies from city to city and state to state, and Redfin is more accurate in some areas. Both estimates are reasonably accurate for homes currently on the market, but are much less accurate for homes that are not currently for sale. Learn more about the accuracy of these estimates. Note the difference in Redfin's 1.77 percent error rate for listed homes versus its 6.66 percent rate for out-of-market homes.
Given this, Zillow's claim that it will have a 4 percent composite error rate in 110 million homes, the vast majority of them out of the market, is see better. Redfin is a low-commission real estate company that offers discounted sales rates for home sellers and rebates for some buyers. According to the latest Zillow data updated daily, Z estimates have a margin of error of 1.9% for homes in the market and 7.5% for those that are not. Many homeowners worry that too low a Redfin estimate could negatively affect them when they go to sell their home.
Zillow does not provide a breakdown that distinguishes between its error rates for already-listed and off-market homes, so there is no direct comparison to the 1.77 percent figure reported by Redfin for listed homes. Most of the time, Zillow and Redfin have different estimates for your home because they have slightly different approaches to calculating home value. Therefore, according to these self-reported numbers, Zillow's Zestimate tool tends to be more accurate for both, compared to Redfin's (3.02% for in-market and 8.69% for out-of-market). Zillow is generally better for home buyers and sellers, but Trulia offers great tools for searching rental listings.
When you sell with Redfin, you'll receive a 1.5% listing fee, which will drop to 1% if you also buy with Redfin. According to Redfin, their estimates have a median error rate of 8.70% for homes that are not for sale and 2.99% for those that are currently on the market. If you're looking for a real estate agent, Redfin is probably a better option than Zillow, as it offers built-in discounts for most clients, albeit with some potential trade-offs. For out-of-market homes, Zillow's Zestimate has a median error rate1Median error means that exactly half of all properties end up selling for a price within the mean error of the initial estimate, and half sell for a price outside that error range.
This Zillow feature is very popular with buyers and sellers to get a general idea of the market value of a home. According to Zillow, their Z estimates have a median error rate of 6.90% for off-market homes and 2.00% for homes currently for sale. That said, neither Zillow nor Trulia is a good place to find a real estate agent, especially if you want to save on a real estate agent's commission or get a cash back when buying.