Popular Consumer Real Estate Sites

Today’s Home Buyers Start Online

According to the National Association of Realtors, the overwhelming majority of home buyers start their search online.  Consumers today are starting at one or several of the most popular consumer real estate sites out there.  Some of the more well known options include:

• Berkshire Hathaway Mobile App (send me your cell # and I’ll share this amazing application).
• Zillow – with Zestimates, “Make me move” and the largest, if somewhat inaccurate, list of homes available.
• Trulia, now a subdivision of Zillow
• Redfin
• Realtor.com – a site that sounds like it is all about Realtors, but in fact is not owned or operated by agents.

The Positive Side of Starting your Boulder home search online

With all the information out there, why not start looking online?  Many of my clients already have a good idea of what they like by the time we begin working together.  Of course, you can’t smell cat pee online, so seeing homes, understanding their proximity to community assets,  learning about the neighborhood are all still important hands on tasks.

But overall, Zillow, Realtor.com and such sites really afford consumers a great opportunity to get an idea of what’s important.

Zillow and Trulia are two very popular search sites for real estate. How do they differ from using a Boulder based Realtor? In every way.  I say that, knowing that I also market to buyers on Zillow and Trulia as well as Realtor.com.

Pitfalls of Zillow Home Search Redfin too

Where to start? With the houses of course. As a Boulder based Realtor, I have direct access to the Multiple Listing Service, sometimes known as the MLS.  This is a clearing house site where all available homes are shown in one place.

The list includes all phases of a listing: Available, Under Contract, Sale Pending, Sold and for those that do not sell, Withdrawn and Expired.  Trulia and Zillow do not show when properties have gone under contract.

You can spend hours on those sites researching the perfect home, only to discover it is already purchased by someone else.

Avoid Pre Foreclosure Zillow Junk

Another key difference is the sold data.  Zillow will commonly show refinance information in a way that looks like sold data.  Buyers want to know the difference. That is, a house that just sold has usually had four unique parties look at the value: the listing agent, the selling agent, the lender and the buyer’s appraiser.

A refinance only has one individual look at value – Lender’s appraiser.  If the house does not appraise, there is no refinance and the lender does not get paid.  Refinances almost always appraise.  The same is not true of homes being sold.  The last few years it has been very common for appraisers to have issues with value.

And then there are the pre foreclosure homes; these are properties where the owner may have merely missed one house payment.  Long before the house is anywhere near truly being in foreclosure, sites like Trulia will offer to sell you the information so you can hassle an owner needlessly.

The Best Up To Date MLS Boulder Information

For a buyer or seller, you want to know the latest and most correct housing data to make an informed decision.  The MLS data therefore focuses on sold data to be the most informative.

The MLS also has more properties listed than commercial sites like Realtor.com or Trulia.  This is because some agents can opt out of having their listings in the online feed.

Another aspect that is different in using a Boulder Realtor versus national site is awareness.  With 21 years experience, I know where the railroad tracks are; have seen which side of street has less snow (southern exposure) and can help clients score the best value before a property is under contract.

Local Realtors Rule

When it comes to finding your dream home, local Realtors know the lay of the land.  We are your best resource for discovering your dream home.  Talk to you soon. ~ Bob