Trulia, Zillow less accurate than Realtors

SEATTLE – Oct. 4, 2012 – The WAV Group, an independent real estate industry research analyst, studied 33 zip codes in 11 U.S. markets to analyze the accuracy of website listing services.

According to the study funded by Redfin, online listing services such as Trulia and Zillow didn’t have the same accuracy as broker-owned websites, in large part because licensed agents have direct access to a local Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

According to the WAV Group release, “local real estate brokerage websites give consumers the most complete, accurate and timely information about homes for sale.”

The study evaluated sites from three local real estate brokerages that help consumers buy and sell homes. It compared those brokerage’s listing search results to two national portals, Trulia and Zillow.

In the markets analyzed, the study concluded:

• Local real estate brokerage sites display 100 percent of agent-listed homes for sale compared to about 80 percent on the national sites.
• Local real estate brokerage sites show newly listed homes for sale seven to nine days earlier than national portals.
• Local real estate brokerage sites almost never show a home listing as active after it has been sold; about 36 percent of listings that appear as active on national portals are no longer for sale.
• The WAV Group, a national consultancy specializing in real estate technology, conducted the study. Independent analysts verified the study data, record by record.

Redfin, a technology-powered broker with more than $5 billion in home sales, sponsored the study. Listing data from the websites of Long & Foster, one of the largest independent real estate brokerages in the U.S. and Windermere, the largest regional real estate brokerage in the Western U.S., was also included in the study.

“We analyzed … more than 6,000 listings in 33 zip codes in 11 markets (and compared) the data on various websites against 14 local Multiple Listing Services,” says WAV Group CEO Victor Lund. “The findings are clear: real estate brokerage websites showed by far the most homes for sale, recognized which homes were no longer for sale, and displayed new listings much earlier.”

According to WAV Group, the brokers’ advantage comes from direct access to local real estate databases. Only real estate brokers are members of a local MLS. In contrast, national portals usually rely on real estate agents or brokers to re-post MLS listings, or the portals aggregate data from real estate information syndicators.

Since syndicators wait until an agent updates a listing, the full results can be inaccurate. With a broker’s MLS-based service, most listings are updated in real time, typically every 15 to 30 minutes.

According to the study, it took a median of nine days for a listing to appear on Trulia or Zillow after it appeared on a real estate broker’s website. Homes, once sold, also appeared to be active listings for a while on Trulia and Zillow.

Markets included in the study: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

© 2012 Florida Realtors®