Let's face it. Times have changed. Most buyers are sitting in their jammies searching for their perfect home online. But where is the best place to look?
You want to look to a source that is directly connected to the Realtor's MLS, or Multiple Listing Service. Otherwise you may not have factual information. But which site should you use?
First, understand the actual MLS is the "Mother Ship" of all home listing information. When a home is listed through a Realtor, the MLS formats and controls the listing so there are no violations (such as fair housing violations). Trust me, we are tightly regulated, and the info must be accurate. As a member Realtor, they smack my hand and slap a fine in it if I break their stringent rules. Additionally, the seller's privacy is protected through confidential "fields" of information, which only Realtors may see.
Some of the non-confidential listing information is then released to all the other public sites, such as Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, Home.com, Trulia.com, SacBee.com and such. Those are the only sites that you, the public, can view, as you do not have access to the MLS.
Some of these sites may have completely different prices for the same home. How could that be? It's because most of them pull form a bunch of sources, not all of which are regulated. I once found a copy of one of my listings on Zillow which reflected the original list price of $820K - $70K higher than the current price! After digging a little, I found they had pulled the listing information from a virtual tour that had been done by someone else! As I adjusted the listing price, the tour information had not been updated. Zillow never updated their information because they were looking in the wrong place!
Craigslist? Now there's a crazy place to look, yet I have clients tell me they look there all the time. You will only find a small sampling of homes where the agents have taken the extra step to advertise there. Most agents do not. I consider Craigslist the Wild Wild West of advertising as there is no regulation, and anything goes. You don't know if the home is really listed, or whether the person claiming to have the information is even the true agent. Or whether the price is right. I say don't go there.
So what do you do? Call a real estate agent you trust and see where the most accurate information is. Realtor.com is sponsored by the National Association of Realtors, and is a direct feed from most of the local MLS's throughout the nation. You'll find accurate all over the nation there.
Or, in Fair Oaks and the Sacramento Area, I have HomeFinder (see the link on the left bar, or on top of my HomePage at www.SallyDunbar.com). There you will find listings of all homes in my area, with the most up-to-date information, refreshed many times a day from the Mother Ship of information - the MLS. It actually is a direct feed into GoLyon.com, Lyon Real Estate's top-notch website, which takes the accuracy of this information VERY SERIOUSLY.
So don't gt bamboozled by a listing you have seen somewhere without first checking the accuracy through your local trusted Realtor. They've got the real scoop.
copyright 2010, Sally Dunbar
Thanks bigstock.com
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