ONLINE SEARCH ENGINES A BOON, NOT A THREAT!

Online property searches are no longer limited to Association of REALTOR’s web sites, or company web sites for that matter. More and more consumers are turning to Trulia.com or Zillow.com as a source of property information. It is interesting to note, like all new ideas that cost money, neither has announced profitability to date. Trulia now claims around 1.5 million unique visitors per month, while Zillow claims somewhere around 4.1 million unique visitors per month. If you haven’t visited one of the two sites I would encourage you to check them out.

Trulia and Zillow have built a consumer offering no-strings-attached real estate information site that is free and searchable at one destination. They’ve made the consumer the first priority while trying not to step on the real estate industry’s toes. So, having said that, I believe that the real estate industry also puts the consumer first. If we didn’t, we would soon be out of business. And, remember, the information that these two sites supply doesn’t take into account the neighborhood information that is unique to each city and/or location, such as the "award performing" school down the street, or the proximity to shopping, freeway access or backyard open space. It is these intangibles that can add or take away value.

Taking this a step further, I decided this morning to go on both the Trulia.com and Zillow.com sites to search for available condos for sale in the city of Benicia. I put in simple search parameters of $300,000 to $400,000 asking price, minimum of 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. I then hit the search button. What happened, you asked? Well, Trulia came up with 5 properties to view, and Zillow came up with 3 properties to view. I then went on our www.solanopacific.com site (which you are on if you reading this blog) and put in the same parameters. Lo and behold, 14 properties showed up, with more photos and information for someone like you to view. Another problem with Zillow is that Zillow presumes to really know market value and gives estimates of the value of each listing they show. The truth is Zillow’s estimates of value are usually either too high or too low (you find this out later when the property sells and closes).

This begs the question - are Trulia and Zillow a threat to our industry? Hardly! I can remember when the only information available to the public (or us agents) was a monthly MLS book followed up a with weekly hotsheets. It didn’t serve the agent or the consumer well. Both parties need accurate, full and the most up-to-date information available about properties and neighborhoods. Fortunately, with technology that is now available, we can have that. I just feel that until all brokers list all of their properties on these separately owned search engines, the public will get better, more accurate information from those of us who actually listed the properties and know the neighborhoods because we live and work in them.