Connecticut homeowners considering listing their property in Fairfield or New Haven County often begin their journey with an automated home valuation from online tools. However, according to Kristin Egmont, a local real estate agent with over 20 years of experience, these estimates can be misleading and may lead to pricing errors that hurt sellers.
“Zillow is not an accurate reflection of value,” Egmont said. “It’s an estimate, but it doesn’t tell you what’s in the house. It doesn’t know what kind of fixtures you have. It’s just looking at area sales. Your house could be worth more than what Zillow is saying – or it could be worth less.”
Automated valuation models rely on public data such as square footage, bedroom and bathroom counts, location, and nearby sales. They cannot factor in a home’s condition, recent updates, or unique features that significantly impact value. Egmont illustrated this with a simple example: a home with a brand-new kitchen, furnace, central air, roof, and paint will command a much higher price than an identical-sized home untouched for 20 years, yet an automated tool may not reflect that difference.
The reverse is also true. Egmont recently worked with a seller whose automated estimate was $900,000. After assessing the property in person, she valued it at $750,000 due to a shared driveway, proximity to a parkway, and needed interior updates. The seller insisted on listing at $849,000. The home sat on the market for six weeks and eventually sold for $749,000. “Right where I said it needed to be,” she said. “If you overprice it, people are going to look past your house.”
Egmont excludes automated estimates from her listings, preferring to price based on current comparable sales and a direct property assessment. Her pricing strategy focuses on creating urgency. She typically lists on Monday as “coming soon,” with showings starting Thursday, followed by open houses on Saturday and Sunday. By the following Monday, she often has multiple offers, frequently above asking price. “When buyers see value, it creates urgency,” she said. “When there’s urgency, it creates a multiple-offer situation.”
However, overpricing can be detrimental. Informed buyers in Fairfield County monitor listings closely. A home priced too high signals something is off, and once a listing stagnates, it’s difficult to recover. “The issue with a house sitting on the market longer than it should is that people start to think there’s something wrong with it,” Egmont said. “Even if there isn’t.”
Pricing is not a one-time conversation. Egmont emphasizes that the number she gives today may not be the listing price later. “Pricing is a moment in time,” she said. “If a seller comes to me in January and wants to list in the spring, I’ll give them a price now, but we’ll revisit it before we go to market. What sold six months ago may not reflect what buyers are doing today.” She recommends looking at comps from the week before launch and understanding real-time buyer demand.
For sellers tempted to anchor to an online estimate, Egmont advises using it as a starting point for discussion, not a final price. She stresses the importance of a professional assessment. “That’s why you need a real estate professional to come and look at your house,” she said. “There are things you can do to increase value. There are also things that will hurt it. Zillow doesn’t know the difference.” More detail on Egmont’s approach is available at kristinegmont.com/process.
