I Saw The For Sale Sign, Why Can't I Find The Home Online?
You're driving down the street and you see a For Sale sign in front of a home that really has curb appeal. You know the neighborhood fits your price range and from the outside the home would appear to have what you're looking for in your next home. Three car garage, large lot, etc. It's time to find out a bit more, you pull out your smartphone or tablet and pull up your favorite search site.
And you got nothing. The home is nowhere to be found! How can that be?
There are a number of reasons you might not be able to find that home:
- It's not been entered in MLS yet. It's not uncommon for there to be up to a few days delay from signing the listing contract and placing a sign in the yard until a home is fully loaded in MLS. We need some time to get the pictures ready, etc. You drive by between sign in yard and MLS and you won't find the home.
- The website you're using may not have updated yet OR not be fed by the local MLS at all. Furthermore, any website not directly part of the MLS is under a time delay. Perhaps just a few hours, perhaps it only refreshes once a day, or maybe even less frequently, but regardless those sites are not up to the minute.
- The seller may have opted out of Internet marketing. Hard to believe isn't it, but rarely someone wants an agent to only market to their sphere and not make the home TOO public (you're probably lucky there was even a sign in the yard!).
- Data entry errors can make a home invisible. Map placement can be wrong, ESPECIALLY with new construction homes. We've literally seen a home placed on a similar named street a couple of towns away. Anyone doing a map search is going to come up empty. And we've seen street names misspelled, subdivision names butchered, size of lot left out and plenty more. Any error can cause a specific search to come up empty.
- The home may already be under contract. Depending on the MLS feed rules, once a home is marked UNDER CONTRACT (PENDING), they may suspend putting the home out to other websites.
- The home already sold. Agents are allowed (with owner permission) to leave a yard sign for up to 30 days after the sale. However, if that were the case you'd typically see a SOLD rider on the sign because the whole purpose is to let the neighborhood know the agent got the job done.
As you can see, there are quite a few reasons that you might see a For Sale sign in the yard, but not find it when you search.
Other questions about buying or selling a Warren County home? Please contact us at 513-520-5305 or email Liz@Lizspear.com.
Serving Warren County home buyers and sellers,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz
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