Allow Quicken for Mac to use Zillow and expand to the Mobile App (12 Legacy Votes and 1 merged vote)

Tom11

Add ability for Quicken Mac to connect with Zillow to determine home value ASSET, and then allow it to show up on the Mobile App

Note: This conversation was created from a

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List of Requests Related to Features for Investments

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oregoncrna

I would love to see a Zillow sync option so that the value of my personal residence was tracked automatically!

Austin@

Agreed! This would be a fantastic addition, especially considering other leading personal finance apps for Mac include this feature.

Austin@

I would love to see Zillow integration in Quicken for Mac. Please keep this idea alive! Thanks!

Austin@

Please keep this idea alive. I would really love to see this feature come to Quicken for Mac!

Megan O'Byrne

i would love to be able to track the value of my properties over time!

gbarbato

Please include Zillow property estimate valuations to Quicken Premier for MAC.

GeoffM

I just purchased Quicken for Mac and am shocked the Zillow integration is not there, when it's basically available for every free personal finance software I've tried. Please make this happen, you already have it for Windows, so it shouldn't be a terribly outrageous ask.

Bishop2

I am surprised as well. Would appreciate this as well. Would also like to track car value as well with maybe a Kelly Blue Book integration.

LoneStar99

It is CRAZY to not have zillow! If you want people to utilize Quicken as a complete financial overview vs just tracking straightforward finances, you have to be able to include what is for many people their largest single asset.

hinder90

Considering that the Windows version has it I am pretty surprised that the Mac version does not have a place to enter your home value, let alone a Zillow lookup tool. The Mac version of Quicken is clearly the red-headed stepchild.

Chris_QPW

hinder90 said:

Considering that the Windows version has it I am pretty surprised that the Mac version does not have a place to enter your home value, let alone a Zillow lookup tool.

Just so you know in Quicken Windows what you have is an asset account for the house and it its value is the balance of that account.  What the Zillow integration does is download the current value and optionally make a balance adjustment transaction to change the account balance to that amount.

So Quicken Mac already has the "place" for the house value, it is a matter of downloading the current estimated value and applying it to the account register.

Chris_QPW

P.S. There really isn't a whole lot of need to add this to Quicken Mobile/Web since you don't update this value that often (the lowest reminder time in Quicken Windows is one month, even though you could do it more often).  After updating on the Desktop you can just sync the current transaction/value to the Quicken cloud account.

hinder90

> So Quicken Mac already has the "place" for the house value, it is a matter of downloading the current estimated value and applying it to the account register.

Okay, so I understand that for the Mac version I will need up update the value of my home manually according to Zillow or whatever measure I deem as the most accurate and that it needs to be added as an "Asset", but are there any guidelines on how to do this so that changes in value as I observe them can be recorded (along with a place for me to put notes) where I don't have to add extraneous transactions that affect cash in/outflows? I have not found a complete guide that gives best practices on for this, especially if my aim is to compare my estimated home value vs the amount owed on my mortgage since I don't see a way to link the two. Since payments of mortgage principle aren't transfers, I don't see a way to create this linkage.

Chris_QPW

@hinder90 Sorry I'm just now seeing your post.  I hope you will see this.

Note I'm a Windows only person so I can't tell you exactly what Quicken Mac has for sure or how to do it, but I can venture some guesses.

Your mortgage loan account and your house account are completely separate.  How much you owe on your house has no bearing on what its value is.  As such they are separate accounts that don't directly affect each other and if you want to put in notes you should be able to do that in whatever transaction you want to add a note to.

In Quicken Windows there is a way to link the house account to the loan account.  This really only done because there is "views" in Quicken Windows where they show them together.  For instance there is a Property & Debit tab that has them.  I don't think Quicken Mac has either the "views" or the "linking".

But in truth it is quite easy to get a picture of value vs loan, just use a report like net worth and include both accounts.

SandDune

Seems like a simple win as Windows already has the feature.

Wade

Bumping this thread.

LetterMan

I think it would be great for Quicken to partner with Zillow or another site to provide automatic real estate values. If this isn't possible, I'd like to be able to easily update the value of my real estate without using clunky transactions. If Quicken showed me the % change in value over time and tracked my cost basis it would be even more useful.

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @LetterMan

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to post your question, although I apologize that this feature isn't currently offered.

I have moved your post to the ongoing Idea thread to add Zillow integration to Quicken for Mac. This idea is currently being reviewed by our development team. I do not have an ETA to provide on when or if this feature will be available. 

However, this post will be updated as soon as more information becomes available.

Thank you,

-Quicken Tyka

jacobs

LetterMan said:

I think it would be great for Quicken to partner with Zillow or another site to provide automatic real estate values. If this isn't possible, I'd like to be able to easily update the value of my real estate without using clunky transactions. If Quicken showed me the % change in value over time and tracked my cost basis it would be even more useful.

@LetterMan  I just wanted to note that you're seeking two very different things here. Valuation -- Zillow, or a comparable manual approach -- is "what is my property worth right now". Cost basis is entirely different: what you paid, plus improvements. And the difference between those two values would be your capital gain (if you sold the property), which may or may not be important for tax planning purposes.

This thread is about adding Zillow integration for automatic valuation updates. I think the Quicken developers should add this, as it's been a feature of Quicken Windows for a number of years now -- but I'm sort of neutral on the importance of it. I can go to Zillow and look up its (imperfect) estimate of my home's value at any time, in a few seconds. Unless you're a property flipper, how often does anyone really want/need to see the changes in this value? For me, the answer is not often; once a year is fine. I don't bother to have and update such an asset account in Quicken; I'm always going to need a home, so if I see this one the proceeds will doubtless go into the next home. (If you're doing end-of-life/estate planning, then the equation changes.) But if you want to have such an account, until Quicken integrates with Zillow, it's easy enough to set up a manual asset account and enter a transaction once a year (or 6 months, or 3 months) to adjust your valuation and be able to see the history over time.

Cost basis is a different matter. It used to be that you really needed to track this because of the potential capital gains tax you'd face when you sold your home. The limits are now much higher than they were in the past -- a gain of up to $500,000 is tax-free for a joint filers -- so unless you have a very expensive home where the appreciation could exceed half a million, keeping detailed records of home improvements to have an up-to-date cost basis is not so crucial. Even though we've owned our home for a long time, I don't foresee exceeding a half million dollar capital gain -- but who knows if the tax laws will changed again and lower that limit. So I have an asset account for the purchase price of our home, and I have recorded a small number of transactions in it over the years for capital improvements. 

Chris_QPW

LetterMan said:

I'd like to be able to easily update the value of my real estate without using clunky transactions.

At the end of the day, all Quicken knows is "clunk transactions".
There is hardly any data in Quicken that isn't based on a transaction.

Sure Quicken can present that data in different ways, but at the core, it is always a transaction.

And for the record all that is done with the Zillow estimate in Quicken Windows is enter a balance adjustment in an house/asset account.  The "presentation" of that account/data is Quicken's normal graphs/views like the net worth graph/report.

So if one wanted to see the possible capital gains that would have to be the combining of an account where you keep track of the costs (which Quicken can't do for you automatically) and combine that with the house account value in a report/graph.

flyinghei

I'd like to see this feature added.

drleesb

Please add the zillow integration for Mac Premier.

calibara

I really need the Zillow estimate to work for Quicken Mac and the related mobile apps. PLEASE 🙏🏼

jacobs

@calibara I'm curious: how often do you want to see an update on the estimated value of your home? I can't imagine wanting to check more than every few months, maybe twice a year. What is the usefulness you'd find in frequently seeing a Zillow estimate, even in the mobile app? Just honestly trying to understand why this would be such an important feature.

majorgear

@jacobs The value of a home is part of your net worth, so keeping it up to date is necessary to know what your net worth is.

jacobs

I understand if you want your home value in your net worth; I was only questioning how often one needs to update a value which is merely an estimate.

While Zillow knows the basics about your home and tracks local market conditions, it can’t pinpoint what your home would sell for today. Have you redone your bathrooms? Renovated your kitchen? Built a nice patio with firepit and fountain? Created a home theater or great rec room in your basement? Constructed a large walk-in closet? Cultivated a lawn and garden that’s the envy of the neighborhood? Has your home been repainted and carpeted recently so it’s move-in ready, or is the carpet worn and the overall state of the place looking a bit run-down? All this and more goes into the true value of your home which Zillow doesn’t know about. So if you want to use Zillow’s value in your Quicken net worth, it’s fine as long as you understand it’s only an estimate, unlike all your financial accounts. And because it’s just an imprecise estimate, how important is it to update more frequently than once or twice a year?

Chris_QPW

For what it is worth, in Quicken Windows you can set a reminder for when to do this update and the choices they give for that reminder are as follows:

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QknDan

I would like to see this feature as well, similar to what is within the Windows Version as shown by Chris_QPW.

DCKiwi

I believe Quicken for Windows has this feature. Would be great if the value of my houses in Quicken for Mac was automatically updated based on the Zestimate.