Sacramento Real Estate Views

Big Box Sites Providing Bogus Info?

Information Often Out of Date

I work with many, many buyers in the Sacramento real estate market.  In the process of searching for a home, most of them at one time or another will ask me to look up a property they found from a site other than the MLS searches that they receive from me.

The concern is always the same. Why aren’t these homes included my searches?

Without fail, I get the address, search the property to find out that, especially with short sales, the property is already sold or has a contract pending on it.

Why is that?  Why do the “big box” sites have so much inaccurate information?

Why These Sites Exist

The first thing to understand about these sites is that they’re primary focus is generating income from the traffic that comes via the search engines.  You type in an address of a home you think might be perfect for you and sites like Movoto, Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com come up with the property you’re looking for as well as others.

These sites make it appear that the property is available just waiting for you to make an offer.  I can’t tell you how many times  when I search these properties, especially in short sales, that the property status is either pending sale or at a minimum active short sale contingent.

In other words, the home is unavailable.  Particularly in the market conditions we have been in for over a year where the inventory of homes for sale is slim and the competition is high.

These sites generally don’t change the status of the listings they tap into from the MLS.  It appears as if the property is still available when in fact it isn’t.  They still get the traffic to the site and from that they are able to sell advertising opportunities to agents and other real estate related businesses.

Are Realtors Any Better?

I also hear from people looking for an agent and clients alike that getting an agent to call you back is the biggest chore of all.  I hear the complaints from the consumer about how self centered agents are when they talk about being “service oriented” but they can’t pick up the phone to connect with what will make their businesses run….people.

For this, I have only one solution.  Call me.

Generally speaking, Realtors and real estate agents are a very odd lot that I’ve yet to figure out.  They know what they need to do yet the majority neglect to do it.

I do know this.  Call me and you will get a return phone call as I’m always looking to help someone get into a home whether that home is worth $100K or $1,000,000.  If I’m not available, someone on my team will be.  You won’t be neglected.

Our main concern is doing what we are licensed to do.  Sell homes.  We do it day in and day out.

Once you get through to us, we’ll make sure you get the most updated and ACCURATE information available about whatever area and home characteristic you’re interested in.  Nothing more and nothing less directly from our MLS.

The Final Word On The Big Box Sites

Despite some of the information on these sites being inaccurate, it does allow the consumer a platform to access some information without being “hassled” by another salesperson.   I respect that most would rather not hear from a Realtor/salesperson type and I don’t blame you.  Realtors/real estate agents can be obnoxious.

Find the right one.  Make some calls, find one that you feel has your best interests in mind and will help you sort through the myriad of information out there to find the best solution for you.

We’re always available to help.  Give us a call or fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you promptly.  We promise you won’t be disappointed.

As always, thanks for visiting!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 10:47 am and is filed under Real Estate Market Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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