Boston Condos for sale
When it comes to downtown Boston real estate websites, bigger does not always mean better. That’s certainly the case with Boston downtown real estate websites.
In general, it is a good idea to allow your home to be shown on as many web sites as possible when it is on the market. I won’t go into all of the details but with ‘broker reciprocity’ if your home is listed on our MLS then it will appear on a zillion websites. It may also appear on national websites like Realtor.com, Zillow or Trulia. Those sites obtain a lot of traffic because they have homes for sale in almost every market in the country.
Boston Real Estate for Sale
I have done some testing and I can honestly say that Boston condos for sale don’t sell faster because they are on more websites. What they really need is to be in our MLS and to have stunning and or amazing photographs, that do help sell Boston real estate faster. Photographs make a huge difference. There should be at least 20 and none should have date stamps on them and all should be professional quality photos that are good enough to be published in a book or magazine. The newest trend is to have them displayed on YouTube.
Regarding Zillow Real Estate Website
It gets complicated but we have a new form for sellers to sign if they don’t want their listings on Zillow when they list their homes and it gives them the option of not having their home on all the web sites with homes for sale
The importance of accuracy
I think most would agree that, aside for ease-of-use, the most important aspect of searching for Boston condos for sale websites is the accuracy of its data. You want to see all the listings available for sale, and no “stale” listings that are no longer on the market. Nothing is more frustrating to a home buyer than either missing out on available listings or finding out that awesome listing you’re looking at actually sold 2 months ago. Unfortunately, those scenarios are all too common on Zillow, Trulia, and similar sites. Meanwhile, our Boston condo for sale website does not suffer the same problems, as I’ll explain below.
Why Zillow is NOT accurate
First I’ll explain the classification of real estate websites. Zillow, Trulia and similar sites are considered “aggregators” or “portals.” They get their listings via an amalgam of sources, including various listing syndication services, manual entry by agents or homeowners. Not every agent sends their listings to them, and there is no regulatory authority presiding over them to ensure timeliness or accuracy. By contrast, Bostonreb.com is a brokerage site. As a licensed real estate brokerage, we are members of the local MLS service. As such, we get a direct feed of listings from the MLS, including listings of all other local brokerages (not just our own listings), through an arrangement called IDX, or Internet Data Exchange. This listing feed is updated in nearly real-time, at least every 15 minutes. So, when a new listing goes active in the MLS, it’s on our site within minutes. Similarly, when a listing is marked “Contingent” or “Pending” (meaning under contract) or “Sold” in the MLS, that listing is indicated thusly on our website within minutes. And finally, when the listing expires, it is removed from our website.
Buyers and sellers like to ask me questions about Zillow.com. Common questions include:
1. Why is the Zestimate so much higher/ lower than the asking price?
2. Why is this house on the market but not listed on Zillow?
3. Why is this house listed as being for sale on Zillow when it is not for sale?
4. Why is this home listed for X on the Zillow web site but for Y on the other web site, I like to look at?
5. I called the agent on Zillow about the house that is for sale but it isn’t his listing and he doesn’t even know where it is. Why is he the contact person?
These are all great questions and I would love to answer each of them but here is the deal, the Zillow website is a place for buyers and sellers to go to get information about real estate. The whole point of Zillow and sites like it is that you do not need a real estate agent to answer your questions.
The sites are more fun than what brokerages or agents have to offer and they are designed with consumer needs in mind. . . which makes me wonder why the sites are supported with agent dollars instead of consumer dollars but only I would wonder about something like that . . .
Please feel free to contact Zillow with your questions about information on the web site because they are really the only people who can answer your questions. They provide phenomenal service and will likely give you the answers you deserve quickly.
If you have a question about a home that is on the market or about the local real estate market I would be happy to answer it. I know which homes are on the market and which are not and what their asking prices are and can even determine the value of a piece of real estate. If you want to look up information on the internet I have thousands of articles on this very blog and a home search that is accurate and even shows sold homes. . . but it isn’t as pretty as the Zillow site, not even close
Boston Condos for sale
