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I doubt zestimates are really a core of their business.

Try to use a zestimate to negotiate the price on your next home. Watch how quick the experts laugh you out if the room.

The zestimate is just a nice quick way to get a ballpark value of a home. But I don't think they are playing any significant role in affecting market prices.

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I find zestimates are most accurate on the day a real estate transaction is recorded. It would be interesting to see an error histogram of zestimate-day-before-transaction.

Anecdotally, the zestimate on my home purchase (in 2016) was off by ~30% (the zestimate was too high).

It is chronically low in the Bay Area.

As someone who used to sell a very similar product, most people understand that those prices are estimates and a just a starting point in determining a fair price.

Others would insist that I match whatever numbers they found online - our standard response was to explain that Zillow won’t actually buy your house from you at the number they’re quoting, so we value their prices accordingly.

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