What You Should Know About Browsing for Homes Online
IT’S FUN! IT’S EXCITING! TAKE EVERYTHING WITH A GRAIN OF SALT!
Browsing for homes online is a window shopper’s Shangri-La: the elegantly decorated rooms, the sculpted gardens, the colorful front doors that pop with those come-hither hues.
Those listings are seductive, but are they giving you the complete picture?
That perfect split-level ranch? Might be close to a traffic-choked street. That handsome colonial with the light-filled photos? Might be hiding major plumbing problems. That attractively priced condo? Might not actually be for sale. Imagine driving across town to see your dream home, only to find it has already been sold.
So let’s manage our expectations.
Your property site should keep current.
You wouldn’t read last month’s Vanity Fair for the latest gossip, right? So don’t browse property sites that might be showing old listings.
Peruse property sites guaranteed to have the latest listings, like realtor.com. It pulls info from the MLS every 15 minutes, making it even more accurate than Zillow and Trulia, which update less often. You wouldn’t want to get your heart aflutter for a house that’s already off the market.
The best properties aren’t always the best looking.
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. But what they don’t say is a picture can hide cracked floorboards, busted baffles and leaky pipes. So while it’s natural to focus on photos while browsing, make sure to also consider the property description and other key features.
Each realtor.com listing has a property details section that may specify important information such as the year the home was built, price per square foot and how many days the property has been on the market.
Ultimately though, ask your real estate agent to help you interpret what you find. The best agents have hyper-local market knowledge and know the histories of some properties. If a listing seems too good to be true, your agent will likely know why.
Your agent is your bestie.
At the end of the day, property sites are like Cliffs Notes for a neighborhood: They show you active listings, sold properties, home prices and sales histories. All that data will give you working knowledge, but not thorough knowledge.
To assess all the information and gather facts about any home you’re eyeing, like how close the local school or where the gym, talk to your real estate agent. An pro who can paint a picture of the neighborhood is an asset.
An agent who can go beyond that and deliver the dish on specific properties is a true friend, able to guide you away from homes with hidden problems and save you from visiting an unattainable listing when you could otherwise be in the park with your dog.
Wanna go deeper? Consider these sources:
School ratings: Data from Great Schools and the National Center for Education Statistics.
Crime statistics: Crime Reports, Neighborhood Scout and Spot Crime.
Walkability and public transportation: Walk Score and APTA.
You may not find your perfect home while browsing listings on your smartphone, so consider the online shopping experience to be an amuse-bouche to your home buying entrée: A good way to get a taste of the different homes out there.
Source www.houselogic.com/buy/how-to-buy-step-by-step/house-shopping-sites