Why There is no Substitute for a Real Expert

Looking to buy or sell a home in Athens, Georgia? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price  Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (706) 621-6085 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Last video, we talked about Zillow, Trulia, and other home search websites. These sites are great tools or aids in beginning your home search, but that is all they are. They are tools or aids to help you in the home search process and in no way take the place of a real estate agent. 

A lot of great homes out there don't even make it to these websites before they go under contract. Just this past month, our team sold 3 of our listings to buyers we were already working with and didn't even have to bother putting them online. This benefits the seller because their home sells at or near list price and within a few days. It also benefited the buyer, as they had the first pick of the great homes we were selling. 

If you are a buyer or seller, don't depend on a website to find you your perfect home. You need to contact a good agent so that you can make the most out of your real estate transactions. If you have any questions about these websites or why an agent is your best bet, please give us a call or send over an email. We'd love to discuss the topic with you. 

Why There are Better Places to Begin Your Online Home Search

Looking to buy or sell a home in Athens, Georgia? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price  Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (706) 621-6085 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

If you have been paying attention to the news recently, you may have heard that Zillow has entered into an agreement to purchase competitor Trulia for $3.5B in stock. These companies make their money by charging Realtors, like us, to become premier agents on their site and to buy ad space. It will be interesting to see what this merger creates, because neither company is profitable, yet their stock prices seem to be high. 

These sites are all well and good, but we have a few problems with them that we'd like to let you know about. The first thing to talk about is the "zestimate". The zestimate is a computer generated valuation of a property. The computer uses an algorithm to compute what it thinks a property is worth. We have seen zestimates be right on target, but more often than not we have seen them be way off.

Another problem with these sites is that some of their information and data is inaccurate. It's not uncommon for us to get a call from a client about a property they are interested on Zillow, only to find that it has been sold for weeks and is no longer available. 

If you want to have an accurate online home search experience, we have a few sites for you to check out. athenshomesearcher.com and athensareahomesearch.com are two sites that you need to visit. They feed directly from the Athens MLS and are more up-to-date and accurate than Trulia or Zillow.

A home search website is simply a tool for looking at properties and is in no way a substitute for a real estate agent. The reason we say this is because most of the best deals we get for our clients often happen before a property is even listed. When you can sell a property for a client without having to put it on the market and at the same time help a client buy a property without having to compete with other buyers, it's a win-win for all parties involved.

If we can do anything for you, a friend, family, or a co-worker, please feel free to give us a call. We would love to point you in the right direction!