How to Use Trulia and Zillow when buying or selling in Northeast Ohio
Trulia and Zillow are resource tools and best used in the initial process of exploring the idea of either purchasing a home or selling a home in Northeast Ohio.
I suggest using in the initial process because not all of the information on either site is accurate, nor do all of the brokers choose to stream their office's listing information to Trulia and Zillow.
Often, I receive calls from Northeast Ohio Home buyers asking about 'xyz' listing and the listing is not on the market - either never on the market or sold already.
I've also received a large amount of inquiries about foreclosed properties. Notice of Defaults and Foreclosure Proceedings are Public Information and therefore the information about the 'Foreclosures' on Zillow and Trulia is often in the earliest of stages and Not Available to Buy. This is a great Resource Tool if you'd like to follow a property or a number of properties in a certain area and wait out the process and perhaps buy the house at the Sheriff Sale. (but, can you imagine going through very difficult times - job loss/illness/divorce and losing everything and then having your house show up on Zillow or Trulia, ugh my heart breaks for these people)
As a Northeast Ohio Home Buyer, Zillow and Trulia are great resource tools to get a general idea about what kind of houses there are in a neighborhood. You can get a general idea about the community itself. You can get a general idea about the market trends. Keep in mind, the information is pulled from Public Information and from what Brokers are allowing to streamline.
You can also get 'Advice' if you have a very general and broad question. And you can search for an agent, much like using the yellow pages. Zillow takes it up a notch by offering a design tab (though, to me nothing beats Houzz) and the Make Me Move Section - I've actually tried to track down these 'Make Me Move' homeowners for buyers who could not find a house in some of our Northeast Ohio neighborhoods and have Never received a response from them.
Trulia and Zillow can be a great Beginning Tool for Northeast Ohio Homeowners who want to Sell their house. You can get a general idea of what your competition might be in a given neighborhood. What have other homeowners done that catch your eye, that make a house 
pop? You may want to do something similar. Check out what public information is available about your house. See if there is a zestimate on your house on Zillow. You can get broad advice or search for an agent like you would in the yellow pages. Use Trulia and Zillow for ideas and as a place to start when just contemplating selling your Northeast Ohio Home.
A note about the controversial 'Zestimate' from Zillow. Because the information is pulled from public information or from being 'claimed' the Zestimate may or may not be accurate.
In today's online world, information is readily available and general information serves it purpose. But, when a person gets serious about the home selling or home buying process that's where we, as Real Estate Professionals and Experts in our Northeast Ohio areas come in.
As Northeast Ohio Real Estate Professionals we have local knowledge and expertise to help our buyers and homeowners understand the data, find the meaning in the chaos, navigate the process, and manage the details.
So, while you're Just Thinking About Buying a Home or Selling a Home in Northeast Ohio, go ahead and use Trulia and Zillow to poke around.
But, when you are Serious About It - Just Call Us. We'll help you connect the dots.
Call Team Pappas at 440) 497-0631
Email Team Pappas at PappasHomeSales@gmail.com
Visit our website at TeamPappas.House
***I've mentioned 'brokers allowing' a few times.*** That's because in Ohio, Brokers Own All Listings, despite which Real Estate Agent you may be working with. The Broker Owns the Listings and Only the Broker can decide how to distribute the information on them. In our area, our brokers are signed up with the Multiple Listing System. This system is used in cooperation with each other. **The Brokers at any time can choose to remove the information from the public sites such as Trulia and Zillow.
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