There is No Excuse for Insufficient MLS Data
Insufficient and inaccurate data in the MLS continues to be an issue. A former colleague that trained me to set up automatic MLS searches for buyers taught me to make the criteria as vague as possible. Her saying on the lack of accurate data in the MLS still rings in my head, "Garbage in, garbage out."
Even still, with the most basic searches I have run into homes not coming up for buyers. Last weekend, it was a fully finished or partially finished basement that didn't have homes coming up for a relocating family. What listing agent leaves that big of a selling feature out? The agents that rely solely on the photos to do the talking. Problem with that line of thinking is that when listings are Coming Soon, it is usually because photos haven't been done. More information is useful to determine whether it is worth waiting for or not, or even worth making a sight unseen offer.
With that family's search now including any level of finish on a basement, we are getting more results that have finished basements. That is good, but should not be this way.
Was I stunned that a simple "senior community" search I had set up for other relocating buyers missed properties that I found other ways? No, but I sure was annoyed. It was simply pulling senior communities in specific zip codes. Couldn't be more basic. Inputting a listing, senior community is a radio button stating Yes or No that the property is located in one. If you check yes, it then open up a text field with the minimum age requirement, which generally is fifty-five. Agents aren't bothering to even read through their choices. Some of them rely on the remarks. Some of them rely that you will know the community names and be searching for them by name. Here we go again, garbage in, garbage out.
MLS searches will only be useful and not give buyers reasons to look on third party media sites when listing agents put in information a buyer's agent can do an accurate automatic search from. If agents continue to put the bare minimum in the MLS, automatic searches that pull directly from the MLS are not going to work.
Comments(12)