If you own or are looking to purchase waterfront property in Kitsap County, better not count on Zillow to get the value right. If the property has a daylight basement, you’ll likely have the same problem with a Zestimate. That’s because Zillow has trouble with these types of property values in Kitsap. The disturbing thing is we have thousands of properties in one or the other of these categories!

Here are the problems. Kitsap County has so much waterfront the Zillow valuation engine gets seriously confused. For example, if you want to see a Zestimate for a property in Manchester, Zillow is likely to include as comparables, property on the South end of Bainbridge Island. As anyone who lives in Kitsap County knows, there is a significant difference in the values of waterfront property between these two communities. Although the two properties may be geographically close (if you happen to be a crow), they are tremendously different in almost all other aspects, and widely separated by road. Zillow hasn’t corrected this yet.

Properties with daylight basements also produce mixed results. If the daylight basement has not been finished for use as living area, Zillow ignores it. If it has been upgraded, Zillow still ignores it! You can tell by comparing the square footage listed on the County Assessor’s website with the square footage Zillow displays. (You can look up any property in the County, by address, here).

Think about how many hills we have here in Kitsap. Properties with finished daylight basements are very common. Bremerton has them, Silverdale has them, as well as Port Orchard, Poulsbo, Seabeck and every other corner of our County.

In a recent conversation with Jim Avery of the Kitsap County Assessor’s Office, I learned that his department has tried to rectify these problems with Zillow. The Assessors Office contacted Zillow’s data provider to point out the discrepancy. Nothing has changed. The Zestimates continue to be innaccurate.

In addition to that, even if the property is not waterfront or does not include a finished daylight basement, the data available at the Assessors Office is data collated in 2007. Our real estate market is moving too fast to rely on data that could be up to 12 months old.

This raises many questions. Kitsap County is a great place to live. We have mountains and plenty of waterfront. But, so do many other states in the US. Do all the states with waterfront properties and daylight basements share the same problem we do?

So, be wary of using free online tools to make large financial decisions. Hire a reputable local Appraiser if you want an accurate idea of local property values. If you are not quite ready to invest several hundred dollars on a full appraisal, check with an experienced local real estate agent. They have access to information that is much more up-to-data than the information Zillow is relying on.

Sellers who rely on a valuation tool like Zillow can also make a costly mistake. Overpricing a property in Kitsap County’s already listing-saturated environment, could cost a seller months of wasted time, while prospective buyers ignore it.

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A Zillow thread

Another Zillow thread (our Assessor pointed out the problem to Zillow almost a year ago)

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