It seems like about every time I see something of interest that a realtor is noted as the listing Company. I go to their website and it is not there. I am assuming Zillow does not monitor sold properties at all. I am assuming these properties are all inactive now. Makes Zillow kind of useless does it not?

Zillow for buyins is a waste youll need to use realtor.com

most agents have a "look at my listings site" and this is nothing more than another agent's listing that they can offer to you as a buyer's agent.

quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:
youll need to use realtor.com

pretty much this

just closed a real estate transaction and this is what the realtors also said.

IMO Zillow is helpful to familiarize yourself with an area generally .... also for rentals

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You can query searches for sold homes on Zillow. There's also a link if you put your pointer over the "buy" link at the top and you can click to see recently sold homes. I have no idea how fast these are updated though.

quote:

Originally posted by bigeinkcmo:
I have no idea how fast these are updated though.

They updated the rental house we just bought super quick, we went under contract and the house doesn't show up under normal searches anymore.

Thanks for info guys. I really appreciate it.

One difference between realtor.com and zillow is that zillow has for sale by owner (FSBO). Redfin has FSBO as well.

Realtor.com is owned by the National Assoc of Realtors.

A real estate attorney at $300/hour is likely cheaper than the 6% sales commission.

In my area realtors link to all the major listing sites. Generally, they update one and the rest go automatically.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

A real estate attorney at $300/hour is likely cheaper than the 6% sales commission.

Commission is paid by the seller. The commission is the fee to market the property. Buyer pays no portion of the fee, other than what's baked into the cost of the home.

The seller is paying to have someone find a buyer for the property. The paperwork is insignificant. Finding a qualified buyer willing to pay top dollar for your property is the real job.

Download one of the free real estate apps like RE/MAX. You will be able to see exactly what’s for sale in the area you want. It’s free and you can filter for for just about anything. It’s basically an MLS listing.

One cool feature is if you happen to come across a house you are interested in you can look at the houses “near me” and if you’re parked out front that house will be first on the list.

ORC also try homesnap it is a really neat little app and website. Allows you to roll up to a house and shoot a pic and it will give you all the details and estimated value as well as property lines etc.

I work part-time for a Realtor doing behind the scenes grunt work as well as photography/videography for listings. Zillow is worthless.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
In my area realtors link to all the major listing sites. Generally, they update one and the rest go automatically.

This is common. It's called a Multiple Listing Service, or MLS. Most real estate agents pay to be part of a local association (For instance, my wife belongs to the Orange County Realtors) and that gives them access to post their listings onto the MLS that the association subscribes to.

The MLS then syndicates the listing to other MLS, and in that way, listings are spread out and advertised. Zillow, Redfin, and all the other dozens of websites trying to change the real estate sales model, all still aggregate data from the MLS. Some do it better than others--for instance, Zillow doesn't pull from our MLS without the broker setting of a feed for his listings to show up on Zillow. Zillow is an advertising platform to help Real Estate agents produce more leads. Agents advertise on Zillow hoping that you pick them to become your Agent. Redfin is a discount brokerage. They hope you use one of their agents to make an offer on a property you find so they can participate in the commission, or that you use them to list your house for sale.

Zillow is largely dependent on available market data too... some areas have much more transparent transaction histories than others.