I had planned on selling my own property without an agent but a different video warned if I did that, Zillow would immediately reduce my Zestimate by ~20%. Because of that I ended up using a agent, only to find that Zillow immediately removed the zestimate once we listed the property which defeated the whole purpose of hiring an agent.

The above was for Austin and whether or not a zestimate appears for an active property seems random.

Now I would like to sell my property in Reno, NV without an agent and I am not sure what will happen to the zestimate. Perhaps I am overvaluing the importance of Zillow's estimate. There are other stories that Zillow will immediately knock down the estimate of a For Sale By Owner home and then call the seller with an offer that is slightly above their lowball estimate. But that level of manipulation seems hard to believe.