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This Arizona property shows heat as extreme.. which is true but it also shows "major" for fire factor (wild fire). I know this area and unless rocks become flammable, I personally think there is very low risk of wild fire.
If Im in the market for a property, I would take these risk into consideration. But I also think these risk assessments can be somewhat careless and possibly de-value a property.
Redfin has been doing this for a while, I'm sure the other online services have in some form as well.
I know this because I was using Redfin to monitor some undeveloped land sales a while back in an area I know very, very well that is flood-prone. Several parcels that were not in a flood zone or even likely to be flooded in our lifetime were marked as "very likely" to have environmental damage in the future. Totally wrong, no doubt lumped into such a category due to its proximity to other flood-prone properties, most of which were marked accordingly to the FEMA flood zone mapping.
When I saw this I went back and used Redfin to see how a previously-owned property that had a LOMA was rated by them. Of course, it was shown as being in a flood zone.
Another example of why a smart buyer does their due diligence. And a lot of it - it has always paid off for me.
Realtor has had this for a while. They just expanded it to include wind, packs of wild dogs, elephant stampedes and some other stuff. I think it used to be just flood and fire.
All of them dropped the neighborhood thing because it was considered racist or something like that. It’s a nice feature because most listing descriptions do not normally disclose flood risks and such.
This Arizona property shows heat as extreme.. which is true but it also shows "major" for fire factor (wild fire). I know this area and unless rocks become flammable, I personally think there is very low risk of wild fire.
If Im in the market for a property, I would take these risk into consideration. But I also think these risk assessments can be somewhat careless and possibly de-value a property.
No question.. just any opinions on this?
They add that, but removed the crime maps (a few years ago now). I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d be more concerned about that than flooding and wind.
They add that, but removed the crime maps (a few years ago now). I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d be more concerned about that than flooding and wind.
The real point is that a buyer who has their act together is going to do the due diligence that would expose that information. It's all publicly available and easy to find.
I do know from my experience as a former realtor in FL, that every home/property that I either served as a buyer's or seller's agent, that I always provided my clients with the local flood zone maps as a courtesy. They are easily available either online or through physical documents in my county and city of residence.
This Arizona property shows heat as extreme.. which is true but it also shows "major" for fire factor (wild fire). I know this area and unless rocks become flammable, I personally think there is very low risk of wild fire.
If Im in the market for a property, I would take these risk into consideration. But I also think these risk assessments can be somewhat careless and possibly de-value a property.
No question.. just any opinions on this?
I think it's just like all of the other information on the website that may or may not be accurate.
'Minimal', 'moderate' and 'major' are subjective terms. Given that there was a large wildfire in Lake Havasu City AZ less than ten years ago, 'major' doesn't really seem that inaccurate a term to me. But again, it's subjective so perhaps a wildfire every ten years isn't major for you.
For my house, extreme heat is listed as moderate even though generally our summers are quite mild along Lake Michigan. I consider extreme cold to be a greater risk to life and property--and that's not even a category. Also it lists flooding risk as minimal and wind risk minor. Yet my neighborhood experiences basement flooding regularly, while I've never heard of anyone experiencing any property damage from wind.
Second, even quantifiable facts can be inaccurate on that website. For my own property, it has the wrong year my house was built by four years. The tax rate is wrong too.
So I don't see how the 'environmental risk' would be any more or less careless than any other information provided on the website. Users are responsible for taking the information provided and forming their own conclusions.
There are Lake Havasu area wildfires in the marshy areas right next to the lake/ river but the particular property I linked to is at least a mile away with Mohave desert and homes generally on 1/4 acre lots with mainly rock landscaping in between. I spend half the year in Havasu and just my opinion but the Havasu house wild fire rating is about as off as it can get. Might be reasons I dont know about however.
Im not sure how people go about finding homes in recent years. I have never been the type to contact a real estate agent first, then let them find homes for me. Instead, I have always found the home by searching on Realtor and Zillow. Once I find something I am very interested in, I will contact the sales professional. As has been mentioned in this thread, do your research on actual risks but I am somewhat influenced by the Realtor environmental risk section. I will be somewhat less so now after seeing what I think are some inaccurate assessments. My original point was that the environmental risk could result in some people moving on from considering a property - which then could have some influence on either how fast the property gets sold or the price.
And.. I have only been looking at wildfire risk which might be somewhat difficult (or complicated) to asses.
There are Lake Havasu area wildfires in the marshy areas right next to the lake/ river but the particular property I linked to is at least a mile away with Mohave desert and homes generally on 1/4 acre lots with mainly rock landscaping in between. I spend half the year in Havasu and just my opinion but the Havasu house wild fire rating is about as off as it can get. Might be reasons I dont know about however.
Im not sure how people go about finding homes in recent years. I have never been the type to contact a real estate agent first, then let them find homes for me. Instead, I have always found the home by searching on Realtor and Zillow. Once I find something I am very interested in, I will contact the sales professional. As has been mentioned in this thread, do your research on actual risks but I am somewhat influenced by the Realtor environmental risk section. I will be somewhat less so now after seeing what I think are some inaccurate assessments. My original point was that the environmental risk could result in some people moving on from considering a property - which then could have some influence on either how fast the property gets sold or the price.
And.. I have only been looking at wildfire risk which might be somewhat difficult (or complicated) to asses.
I'm sure they'll tweak the feature as they see how people respond--and as they are able to gather more data.
The tool could be useful at least in the sense that it reminds people to think about these things, even if the specifics are inaccurate or subjective. Too often buyers look at price and paint color and not much else. Environmental risks should be at least as important as the school district.
Environmental risk is a legitimate factor in any real estate purchase consideration. And it pays to verify any information that a buyer deems important. I would not trust information in a listing, let alone what a listing agent might tell me, without verification.
10 years ago I bought a house in rural Virginia. I asked the listing agent if there were any deed restrictions. She responded, no, there are no deed restrictions. I said please double check. Ten minutes later she called back to say it was verified, no deed restrictions. So I found a buyer's agent and asked her the same question. Ten minutes later she said there were deed restrictions and emailed me a copy. They were real and substantial. Didn't stop me from buying, but at least I knew what the restrictions were before making a commitment.
In this case there were also environmental factors, but those were honestly represented.
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