Miami Realtors: how accurate do you feel Zillows "Zestimate" is? (market)

[Marc Middleton]

Originally Posted by arekusu

Looking at the recently sold listings has the draw back of being shown the price the home was sold for AFTER the down payment, so you don't really get to see the actual sale price (and you don't know how much they put down).

As I mentioned above this is just for my own research, I'm not quite at the stage to get a Realtor involved to start running comps, etc.

Thanks

Down payment has no effect on sales price. It will show up accurately regardless of down payment on Redfin, Zillow, etc. as well as Miami Dade property records.

No need to do all this research and waste your time, just hire a realtor (for free) and have them setup a search ,send you comps/CMAs when needed, etc. so when the time comes you are ready to jump on a well priced home.

[ruski]

Originally Posted by Marc Middleton

Down payment has no effect on sales price. It will show up accurately regardless of down payment on Redfin, Zillow, etc. as well as Miami Dade property records.

No need to do all this research and waste your time, just hire a realtor (for free) and have them setup a search ,send you comps/CMAs when needed, etc. so when the time comes you are ready to jump on a well priced home.

Such a simple concept, yet so many people shy away from it and want to poke around on their own...

[Lusiphur]

Originally Posted by ruski

Such a simple concept, yet so many people shy away from it and want to poke around on their own...

That's something realtors have largely done to themselves. Especially realtors in South Florida (I went through 5 before I found someone competent.) At this point, I think a lot of people realize that incentives for realtors don't really match up with their clients 100%, so the motivation to hire one is lacking.

[Marc Middleton]

Originally Posted by Lusiphur

That's something realtors have largely done to themselves. Especially realtors in South Florida (I went through 5 before I found someone competent.) At this point, I think a lot of people realize that incentives for realtors don't really match up with their clients 100%, so the motivation to hire one is lacking.

Its just as much on the buyer too for hiring a bad realtor.

Did you read their reviews? Did you see what properties they have bought/sold? Did you do a proper buyer consultation prior to looking?

The answer is usually no, especially the last one.

Buyers flake on people all the time and use a hard working agent to drive them around and then write the deal with their relative who is a 'part time agent' to help them out or maybe get half a percent back at closing. Then agents are out their time (most valuable asset as an agent), wear and tear on the car, gas, tolls, valet parking/street parking, etc.

Are their bad realtors in Miami? Of course, that's why I got my license and found early success. But there are plenty of bad buyers out there too. Calling us up saying "I want to see this 1 place only right now, drop what your doing and help me". I can probably count on 1 hand how many buyers reached out to me and said "here's what I want, lets meet and go over my plan, budget, and criteria". Those that did, I helped and 90% of them actually bought a home and were very happy...
And I can count on 1 hand how many agents I've met will tell a buyer who calls to see 1 property "Lets meet first and go over your criteria and see if we click before we rush out and a see house you may hate or not qualify for...Oh you don't want to meet first? Ok then I'm not helping you. Best of luck".

Its a double edge sword unfortunately.

But if you want a GOOD agent, research them, call 1 or 2 (just as you would to sell your home) and have a proper consultation before seeing a home.
Your success rate will sky rocket and you'll avoid these lazy agents, part time agents, and those that don't know what they are doing. Plus you can weed out any that don't vibe with you right from the start.

[arekusu]

Originally Posted by Marc Middleton

Down payment has no effect on sales price. It will show up accurately regardless of down payment on Redfin, Zillow, etc. as well as Miami Dade property records.

I'm confused by this. I currently own a Townhouse. On all of the websites such as Zillow, Red Fin, etc... the home shows as being sold for $250k. Public records shows the same thing, however the agreed upon sale price when the contract was signed was $280k (30k down towards the home), so why do all of these sources show the "sold" price as $250k?

[Lusiphur]

Originally Posted by Marc Middleton

Its just as much on the buyer too for hiring a bad realtor.

Did you read their reviews? Did you see what properties they have bought/sold? Did you do a proper buyer consultation prior to looking?

The answer is usually no, especially the last one.

Buyers flake on people all the time and use a hard working agent to drive them around and then write the deal with their relative who is a 'part time agent' to help them out or maybe get half a percent back at closing. Then agents are out their time (most valuable asset as an agent), wear and tear on the car, gas, tolls, valet parking/street parking, etc.

Are their bad realtors in Miami? Of course, that's why I got my license and found early success. But there are plenty of bad buyers out there too. Calling us up saying "I want to see this 1 place only right now, drop what your doing and help me". I can probably count on 1 hand how many buyers reached out to me and said "here's what I want, lets meet and go over my plan, budget, and criteria". Those that did, I helped and 90% of them actually bought a home and were very happy...
And I can count on 1 hand how many agents I've met will tell a buyer who calls to see 1 property "Lets meet first and go over your criteria and see if we click before we rush out and a see house you may hate or not qualify for...Oh you don't want to meet first? Ok then I'm not helping you. Best of luck".

Its a double edge sword unfortunately.

But if you want a GOOD agent, research them, call 1 or 2 (just as you would to sell your home) and have a proper consultation before seeing a home.
Your success rate will sky rocket and you'll avoid these lazy agents, part time agents, and those that don't know what they are doing. Plus you can weed out any that don't vibe with you right from the start.

I get all that, but that actually goes far more to prove my point than disprove it. The fact that you have to go through a whole process to find a realtor who doesn't suck says a lot about the quality of the average realtor (e.g. my first realtor who showed up late for a day of condo viewings, about 6 total, and then suddenly had something come up after 3 and ditched with a casual "Oh yeah, here's the lockbox code, you can go view the rest yourselves if you want." After showing us two apartments that were so far removed from what we wanted that it was laughable.) Sure, buyers should do some homework on who they're dealing with, but it's way too easy to become a realtor, so the profession at any given time is 30% people who know what they're doing and 70% time wasters. And it's not always possible to find one that's going to be good - ours was fine when he helped us find a rental when we first moved. He didn't start sucking until we began looking for a place to buy, and I know we were pretty significantly on the upper end of his typical range, so it wasn't a time waste.

[elchevere]

I think it is as or more important to have a very good real estate attorney representing you—especially in this shuyster filled city. A good one will make sure the listing agent does not try passing along expenses when you are buying that are customarily picked up by the seller and he will insist on putting everything in writing (it is assumed one gets a parking space when buying a condo—do not assume; did the unit come with an additional storage unit—if so, will that transfer over to you or did the owner/seller sell those rights??...again, EVERYTHING in writing.

A good realtor will cover this for you, but not everyone is a good realtor. Given what my realtor thinks vs what my attorney knows, Im going with the attorney. As my first boss preached to me, you get what you inspect not what you expect.

[Marc Middleton]

Originally Posted by Lusiphur

And it's not always possible to find one that's going to be good - ours was fine when he helped us find a rental when we first moved. He didn't start sucking until we began looking for a place to buy, and I know we were pretty significantly on the upper end of his typical range, so it wasn't a time waste.

So you would have wasted 1 day of showings given his behavior. That's not so bad right?
If they give you the lockbox, they are breaking the law/code of ethics and can lose their license. So that equals 'not a good realtor'.

Isn't that the same in all professions? How hard is it to become an attorney? The majority of them suck too!

If you did what I said in my post above, you wouldn't have been on showings with the person you used. Someone with dozens of reviews across all major platforms isn't leaving in the middle of showings and giving out the lockbox code, I can assure you!

its just as much on the buyer in being selective as it is in the realtor not trying to work with every time waster in Miami. (and there are A LOT OF time wasters in Miami).

[Marc Middleton]

Originally Posted by arekusu

I'm confused by this. I currently own a Townhouse. On all of the websites such as Zillow, Red Fin, etc... the home shows as being sold for $250k. Public records shows the same thing, however the agreed upon sale price when the contract was signed was $280k (30k down towards the home), so why do all of these sources show the "sold" price as $250k?

Your title company recorded the sale price wrong in county records thus causing all the major sites to report it accurately.

The sale price is the price, regardless of down payment and any seller concessions.

[arekusu]

Originally Posted by Marc Middleton

Your title company recorded the sale price wrong in county records thus causing all the major sites to report it accurately.

The sale price is the price, regardless of down payment and any seller concessions.

Interesting. Thanks