Looking for homes on Zillow? Use Caution.

I met a buyer this weekend who lamented the fact that everytime she finds a home she likes and inquires about it, the home is already pending.  She asked:

"Why are all the good houses gone by the time I find them on Zillow?"

Good question, with an easy answer.  

One popular way first-time home-buyers look for homes is through Zillow, Trulia or sites like these. But what consumers don’t know is that these sites on a whole:

• Can have out of date information—their information does not come directly from the MLS (which is the official sharing of properties and prices for the real estate community). Because of that, when properties are listed, are sold or prices change, it can take days or weeks to reach Zillow and the like.
• Can have inaccurate information—when the information coming to these sites is late in coming, the consumer can get the wrong information. This can hinder them in looking in a specific price range, putting in a competitive offer or missing a house all together because the house already has offers before it changes on Zillow.
• Can have estimates of home values that are WAY off --Texas is one of only a very few non-disclosure states in the country. What does this mean? When a property is sold, the public is not privy to the price the property sold at. Zillow even states as much in their fine print saying that they have very low accuracy of Zestimates in the state of TX.

So how should a buyers look for properties?

• Realtor sites like Coldwellbanker.com
• The "GO MLS" app like the one we have in Austin which is a consumer facing direct feed from the MLS.  You can get this from your Realtor.  Then you an see what your Realtor is seeing.
• Or ask your Realtor to set you on a custom search which will send you properties to your e-mail the minute they hit the market

One thing ALL websites agree on is that if you want the most ACCURATE picture of what your home would sell for, or what offer you should put on a home, a Realtor has the tools and education to help!

Call me to help you put together a timely and ACCURATE real estate search!

This is 4th in my series of articles for first time home buyers.

1rst in the series for First Time Home Buyers

2nd in the series for First Time Home Buyers

3rd in the series for First Time Home Buyers