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FYI, truilia and Zillow do not pull information from our Phoenix area (ARMLS) MLS, and have lots of inaccurate listing info. They have no agreement to exchange information. The next best choice would be Realtor.com, which does get a feed from our MLS. Best choice as Mike mentioned is to use a local agents IDX which gets a direct MLS feed.
Both MikeJ and I use and IDX solution which has an entire mapping feature, and an iPhone app that is integrated with google maps. You can literally drive around town with the houses mapped out on your iPhone. It's a sweet app. You get the feed right on your phone. I think it is way better than Zillow or Trulia. It updates very quickly.
I also agree that there are many local agents that have great IDX search sites which have great features. The problem is that people tend to go to the big franchise sites, not realizing that some agents have their own sites with better IDX search options.
I think the OP has some valid points. I too shun listings without photos, both inside and out.
Someone mentioned school districts, but what about us empty nesters? To be honest, the schools are not as important as the ~walkability~ of any given neighborhood or community to me. There is a neat app available that can include the walkability score into your property listings:
And finally, Open Houses. {{{Groan}}}. I can hear you all now: "No House Ever Sells At An Open House". True, we did not buy a house we saw during an open house.....but we started touring open houses ~20 months before we bought our current house. We were not-quite-serious-enough to bother a realtor, but we were trying to get a handle on the market. We wanted to see what we got for the money in various neighborhoods.
When we figured out where we wanted to live and what we wanted to spend, we contacted a local RE agent and had a done deal in under 2 months. We also gave him the listing of the house we wanted to sell. Win-win.
Good luck and best wishes to all of the buyers, sellers, and pros.
Fortunately, I have a Realtor in WNC who is helping me. He is on Exit Mountain Realty - some of the listings there are very limited and frustrating, but many are good. When we get this house sold, we will meet with him in person.
Thank you everyone for your expertise. It means a great deal to me and it is kind of you to share.
If you have a Real Estate agent, why are you having to go to other agents sites, trulia and zillow? doesn't your agent have a website solution? What you have suggested agents doing, costs money. We are willing to spend the money to get clients. If you are just using my site for free (not requiring registration, etc), then I am providing a public service?
see how it makes it difficult to just allow access without requiring registration? If you found you like MIke J's website better than your agents, would you be willing to switch to him (assuming he was in your target area?) because it was "free", no registration, had good/excellent information, etc...???
If you have a Real Estate agent, why are you having to go to other agents sites, trulia and zillow? doesn't your agent have a website solution? What you have suggested agents doing, costs money. We are willing to spend the money to get clients. If you are just using my site for free (not requiring registration, etc), then I am providing a public service?
see how it makes it difficult to just allow access without requiring registration? If you found you like MIke J's website better than your agents, would you be willing to switch to him (assuming he was in your target area?) because it was "free", no registration, had good/excellent information, etc...???
shelly
In our case, our agent's site isn't as good as the one we use-- Redfin. The information on Redfin is more complete and there are more ways to parse the data to make it useful to us.
Since we established a relationship with our agent before discovering Redfin, we want to honor the work she's already done by having her be the one to close our purchase one day.
All of that said, [i]next[i] time we go to buy or sell, we'll probably investigate Redfin's agents and give them a shot at our business, based on the professionalism, candor and thoroughness of their site.
So, they get nothing from us now but good will. Which may be bankable later. (They also get word-of-mouth which may be bankable now.)
In Long Island, New York and probably the rest of the state, square foot is very seldom used. It is just not the norm in this area. However pictures,virtual tours, all fees,and everything else you mentioned is very important and usually present. There are so many wonderful tools that realtors use to save you hours of time, like ListingBook that allows you to post-it note, your reaction and or questions on a property any time of the day or night. Trulia and Zillow are not always that accurate or updated. ( They down load from multiple list services and in many cases one to two days after a change is posted)You would be much better off, searching on your local mls and hooking up with a knowledgeable responsive, realtor who absolutely listens to your don't wants and must haves. He/she has knowledge that cannot be found on Zillow,Trulia,MLS, or anywhere else! Interpreting what you see,is also another factor to be considered.
Shelly - if you are a good agent and have a good site that is free for the area I am researching, then I may very well use you as my agent when I decide to buy. If you require registration, you won't get my business because I won't use your site. Capice?
Is that a public service? Not in my opinion - it is a marketing strategy that may get you clients.
I used several sites and didn't have to register. After making a list, I emailed my agent. She sent the mls details to me which helped me narrow it down. Before we arrived in GA she set up appts. We saw 12 houses in one day, narrowed it down to 2. A poorly marketed house could be your dream home. It doesn't hurt to look.
All of that said, [i]next[i] time we go to buy or sell, we'll probably investigate Redfin's agents and give them a shot at our business, based on the professionalism, candor and thoroughness of their site.
I give Redfin's website an A+ in terms of content and presentation, compared to other public real estate sites. I used to like the ziprealty website back when they were the only game in town, too.
They are based in Schaumburg and have at last count, about 5 agents in the greater Chicagoland, an area of about 8400 square miles. One of the agents does the lion's share of business. They closed one listing in the past year ( $5000-7000 flat fee) and about 50 sales where they represented the buy side and refund 50% of the broker's commission, the primary reason why people use them.
Their hook is "you ( the consumer) controls the whole process." I can appreciate their appeal to those who prefer to limit themselves to how well or not, a given property is marketed via the web and/or who live in and know the community they want to buy in, especially in a buyer's market. The missing link, for me, putting on a pair of home buyer's shoes, is that they do not know they dirt or add value /opinion, because they don't know. How could they possible know?
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