All Real Estate sites have the same listings - True or False?
October 23rd, 2008 categories: Home Buyer Information | 26 views
FALSE. All real estate sites DO NOT have the same listings. In addition to real estate sites missing active home listings, their listing data contains OUTDATED PRICES and homes no longer on the market.
Say it isn’t so Batman. Well, I am not batman but it is the TRUTH. A recent survey performed by WAV Group for Roost.com identified the inaccuracies in listing data between various real estate sites. In the sample of missing listings in Dallas, Zillow was missing 64% of the listings, Yahoo was missing 54%, Trulia was missing 46%, and Google was missing 31% of the real estate listings. If you are looking for a home, that’s a lot of homes that you are not getting an opportunity to choose from.
Why are the real estate sites missing listings? The missing listings and inaccurate prices has to do with the source of the real estate sites listings. The most accurate source of real estate listings and prices is through the LOCAL MLS.
The above mentioned sites DO NOT receive a direct feed from the LOCAL MLS. Thus causing the major real estate sites to compile listings from numerous sources including advertising publications, agents, and direct feeds from brokers. Since the major real estate sites do not have direct feeds from ALL brokers nor the listings from ALL agents, its inevitable that they are going to be missing listings.
The cause of inaccurate listing prices is due to some of the same factors. The advertising publications are not notified of listing price changes and in turn the real estate sites are not notified. We, real estate agents are just as guilty. We adjust a price in our local MLS but don’t take the time to adjust the price at ALL the real estate sites where we have posted our listings.
So if you are a Spring Texas home buyer looking for the most complete and accurate source of listing data where do you go? Search for homes on real estate sites that receive a direct feed from the local MLS. These sites include our real estate site, broker sites, and the consumer site of our local (Houston Association of Realtors). All are powered by the local MLS which is the most reliable source of listing data.
Thanks for the mention in this post, Jill.
The issue goes deeper! Even agents who are interested in removing inaccurate listings or correcting listing information are often faced with a daunting challenge.
The good news is that things are getting better. I know that Zillow took our research to heart and has made major steps to improve the problems over there. Trulia has been pretty quiet about their efforts. Yahoo does a very good job on listing accuracy because they only take listings from Agents, Brokers, Franchises, and MLSs.
All in all, it is a mixed bag out there. The very best way for consumers to get listing information is from a REALTOR through an MLS provided client service portal. That is even more accurate than agent and broker websites and often contains far richer information.
The second best place is the Agent or Broker website. For those consumers who want to avoid the potential sales pressure from some agent and broker websites, HAR.com is a great place to do property research.
Excellent Blog! Keep up the great work. As an FYI, our partner Marilyn Wilson is speaking to the HAR Board of Directors at todays meetings.
Thanks for stopping by Victor. I understand what you mean about the sales pressure at some sites. There are a vast majority of agents who require people to register before they search for homes so that they market to them.
We do not believe in making people register before searching for homes. We know they will find value in the information we are sharing and when they are ready to start viewing homes they will call us.
Great article — very informative for the general public.
Thanks, Kathy. I think the many people do believe that all real estate websites have the same listings. That is just not the case.