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<p>Zillow.com is not very accurate in my experience, and is slow to react to changing market conditions. I would use it if it is advantageous, but ±10 to 20% is a pretty large spread.</p>
<p>I own some rentals, and the areas they are in have been very hard hit by the crashing of the real estate market (virtually every sale that could be used as a comp has been a foreclosure), to the point where I owe more than the properties are worth. This triggered an alert when I filed the forms; who knows whether the schools accept your numbers - maybe they use zillow too, and come up with their own number.</p>
<p>The killer is depreciation, which many (Profile) schools will add back to your income because they consider it to be a “phantom” expense - in theory you didn’t actually spent any money paying that expense. It is not an entirely accurate viewpoint, but what can you do.</p>