If you are in the market to buy a home, you may be wasting your time using Zillow or Trulia for your real estate search. Why you ask? Here are 8 reasons not to use Zillow or Trulia.
Zillow owns Trulia – Didn’t know that? Well it is a fact. Zillow, Trulia, and other real estate search engines are owned by the same company, Zillow Group. All of these sites have the same bad information, so why waste your time checking them all? Many of our customers say they check both sites because they “don’t want to miss anything.” This works well for Zillow Group. They make their money from advertisers on their site. The more searches, the more millions they make.
Scams – Zillow/Trulia allows anyone to post homes for sale or rent, just like craigslist. This opens the door for con artists to step in and make some money. How do you know the home you are looking at is even owned by the person who posted the listing? Countless times we run into people that have been victims of scams on Zillow or Trulia. Never buy a house you find on there if it is not listed by a Realtor you can verify is a Realtor. Can you go to his office? Call his Broker? Realtors verify ownership. Zillow does not.
Zestimates – When estimating your homes value, Zillow is no better than your tax assessor. Actually, I would trust your tax assessor more, because at least they are local and have access to verified sales data. Zillow say that their Zestimates are within 10% of actual sales prices only 63.6% of the time. In our world, 10% is a huge difference. If you wonder what your home is worth, just talk to a Realtor.
A new court decision has saved our clients over $11,000! After researching hundreds of transactions, we found 19 deals where our clients are due a Michigan Transfer Tax refund.“Did you pay a Michigan transfer tax on a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac property? We have great news to report – refunds are now available.”
What is SEV and TV? 0:27
How are SEV and TV calculated? 0:53
Why did my SEV go up? 2:30
Why did my taxes go up when I bought my house? 5:10
How do I lower my property taxes? 6:23
Final thoughts. 8:58
The other day while sitting in a closing with one of our agents, the wife of the seller asked when the title company moved in to their newly built building. Her husband, who owns a cement company, replied, “They moved in right after they didn’t use me for the concrete work.” I laughed probably harder than I should have. That response was awesome!
How nice would it be when someone says to me, “When did the Johnson’s put their house on the market?” to reply with, “Right after they didn’t ask me to list it for them.” Or “Did you hear that Mary just bought a house?” and I say, “Yeah, I heard that right after she didn’t use me as her agent.”
I’m not saying that I expect everyone to use me for their real estate needs. I realize that a lot of people know multiple Realtors. So it isn’t that someone chose someone else to work with, it’s more about who they chose to work with. Continue Reading →
My parents have never been into gossip. My dad sold life insurance for 40 years, and as a result, knew a lot of secrets. He knew when people were diagnosed with serious illnesses, when people were divorcing, and when a baby was on the way. When something would happen in our small town, he always knew about it first, but never said a word. When the rumor mill started and the story would change over and over, he kept quiet. He still knows a lot of secrets, and he’ll never tell them. He learned, as have I, that keeping your mouth shut is a very powerful tool in business.
Buying or selling a house is a very emotional experience. During this process, nerves are frayed. Without a doubt, sensitive situations arise. Because we know this, we know the number one way to combat it is to keep our mouth shut and our ears open. Telling too much information will ruin deals. My dad always told me that it wasn’t our business to tell someone else’s business. If I’m working with you, only you and whoever you tell know about it. If you want to tell people you found your dream home, tell all the people you want. They won’t hear it from me. Continue Reading →
A real estate transaction is full of surprises. You never know what will arise. Renegotiating the piddly stuff after an accepted offer is a bad idea.I recently listed a home that is an estate. The home itself is a little rough, but it’s structurally sound, has a nice floor plan, and has beautiful property. We priced it with all this in mind. We had a ton of showings right away, and we received an offer within a couple days of listing it.
After some negotiating, we had a signed, accepted offer. The agreement was a couple thousand under list price, some closing costs were kicked in, and the buyers would pay for all inspections. The buyer, being a contractor, did the home inspection himself. Following the inspection, he decided he wanted to start renegotiating the accepted offer. Continue Reading →
Last weekend, my husband and I hosted a party for his teaching staff at our home. He’s been wanting to do it for five years, and this year I finally relented. But I had a couple requests- new flooring and fresh paint. With two boys and three animals, our nine year old carpet had seen better days, and my walls had been tormented by light saber wars and bouncing balls. It took me three weeks to get the new flooring ordered and installed, the walls painted, new trim installed, and the dust explosion cleaned up.
It was a lot of work! And on top of the inside needing some improvements, the outside needed some attention, too. Landscaping is my hobby, but this summer I’ve been so busy with work that I hadn’t been able to weed as aggressively as usual. Bushes needed trimmed, plants needed pruned, and weeds pulled. I spent two days outside working on just that. For about ten minutes before the party, my house was absolute perfection. It was the best it had ever been, and the best it will ever be again. I looked at my husband and said, “If we ever want to sell this house, now is the time. This is what a house needs to look like to get the highest dollar.”
This weekend, I scheduled showings for three buyers. I showed twelve houses in one day. Guess how many of those houses were show ready? Three. And I’m not talking about houses that are $20,000 and need TLC. I’m talking about lakefront homes and homes on large tracts of land. So what does a show-ready home look like? Here’s a list: Continue Reading →
