Palo Alto Off Market Sales, Why Are They Increasing?
As you all know, off market sales are increasing in all cities along the Peninsula and especially in areas such as Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Atherton, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. There are many reasons and each seller and agent might have a different opinion on why they want to choose to sell their home off market instead of thru the MLS. One reason that is being discussed frequently is the surge in popularity with the IDX sites, such as Trulia, Zillow, Red Fin etc. Many agents are choosing not to syndicate their listings or even keep the home off market because of how those sites operate. They are very informative for the consumer and have great information, however, the downside is that they are using our listings to sell advertising. They are making millions of dollars off of agents advertising and hard work, while the agents typically don’t get anything in return. It would be great to see some statistics on how many people actually buy a house because they saw it on Zillow or Trulia, but those statistics don’t exist. So, the thinking is that 99% of the people who visit the sites aren’t making a purchase based on seeing the home on the site, but typically get the info from their agent.
Many agents don’t like it because the online sites charge other agents to put their picture/ad next to our listing so the consumer believes the advertised agent is really the listing agent. So, agents who do a lot of business and get high end listings don’t always want somebody else’s picture next to their multi million dollar listing, so they are choosing to keep the home off market.
Is this the reason for the surge in off market listings in the area? Who knows, but it’s one reason that the IDX sites are the center of discussion as the various MLS’s are hearing complaints from their members and the MLS’s are losing control of their listing data. The future of these sights are unknown, but anybody who goes on them quite a bit also knows the information they provide is not always accurate nor up to date. The only place buyers can get the real information is from their real estate agents, and that won’t change no matter what happens to the popularity of the online sites. Do you use the various sites and have you ever made a purchase based on seeing it on Trulia or Zillow?
