Homes For Sale Listing Not Accurate on Popular Online Websites

Home buyers and sellers often quote Trulia, Zillow or Redfin as their main source of real estate information. If they are out looking for a home, they check these popular online sites daily to see what’s on the market. All real estate agents know that the information definitely isn’t up to date for homes along the peninsula as there is so much off market activity and it’s kept between agents who work the areas a lot, so the online sites don’t have a clue to what’s really for sale here.

A new report by Redfin proves what we agents have known for a long time – the information on these sites isn’t accurate at all. I personally have received calls about listings that have sold months ago and have grown to find it fairly normal, but I never understood how bad the statistics really are. The study found that approximately 36 percent of the listings on the websites were no longer active.

Wow, 36%!

That’s a big margin of error. Do they do it so they can keep potential buyers and sellers on their sites longer and sell more page views and advertisements? Do they do it because there is a shortage of inventory in many areas and they don’t want to look like there isn’t enough information to keep home searchers happy? I’m not sure what the reason, but read the full article here.

This gets back to a plug for using a local real estate agent who has the latest information plus the off market listings.  I would estimate 20-30% of the business in this area if done off market, so if you really want to find a house, call a reputable agent.  I can help you with your real estate needs in areas such as Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Atherton and surrounding areas.  There are also plenty of other good agents as well who are professionals and take their jobs very seriously.  Working with clients to buy and sell luxury real estate is a demanding job as there are high stakes and very successful buyers and sellers who only accept the best agents to handle their transactions.  Relying on these websites seems like a step in the wrong direction and in an area of intelligent, successful people, this isn’t always the smartest choice.