Why Zillow, Trulia and other online Real Estate Estimators are dangerous

I am still flabbergasted as to why the President of the United States of America would rather fly to California to meet with the President of Zillow, rather than to speak with the Oracle of Omaha on the status of housing in the US of A. It makes no sense to me that he thinks an online company that builds NOTHING is more important than a man who owns many businesses who employ thousands who build products and solutions for our great country. Especially when Zillow lies in its data presented.

Case in point, last Sunday, one of my new clients was interested in a house in Jacksonville Beach. It was a foreclosure that was listed by the foreclosure division of our offices, and the sign was still in the yard. The REO agents rarely return calls, just they way they "roll", so my client gets on "Zillow" and searches for information on the property. He finds it, Zillow shows it is still available and for sale. He asks me if we can go look at it.

I will give Zillow credit, often times they include the MLS number, which makes it easier to search on a 6 digit number than a long address which may or may not be in MLS correctly, again REO properties are all over the place in correctness. So I do the search on the property, only to find that the property was sold 3 weeks before and that the buyer has been lazy to remove the sign. Zillow, Trulia and other online sites that do not have direct access to listings and their data are doing harm to the Real Estate Profession.

With less than 8000 homes on the market in Jacksonville, we are under 5 months of supply of homes and an average days on market of only 79 days. The point here is that you cannot afford to look at crummy sites that are not current with data. If you are in the market for a house, work with your agent, they can send you a link to all the properties that come on the Multiple Listing Service, for your area just as soon as they are added. No cost, no fuss, and all in real-time. IF you must search, use the Realtor.com site, it is the best place for up to date data.

Zillow, Trulia and the others will have a day of reckoning, it may not be tomorrow, but their day is coming. They are not needed in the Real Estate business, their marketing is sloppy and ultimately hurts those who come to rely on their "data".

#LizBobeck