Troy Stavros, Broker and Partner with the 865 Real Estate team stated, “We’ve witnessed time and again the incorrect information being displayed on many of the top, national real estate websites. The most accurate information can be found on local, brokerage sites, because they are pulling directly from the local Multiple Listing Service.”
While local Knoxville real estate brokerages have an agreement with each other to display the entirety of each other’s inventory of Knoxville homes for sale, other third-party listing portals, like Trulia and Zillow, may only receive some listings directly from an MLS. Individual brokers have the ability to withhold listings from these sites, and in many real estate markets, these websites must rely on individual brokerages, agents and third-party syndicators for listing data. The result in trying to pull this information from multiple sources is that these sites end up with incomplete or inaccurate listing data.
Recently, research was completed by Zip Realty, comparing the actual listings in certain zipcodes for sale, and verified on the MLS, to the listing data shown on Zillow and Trulia. The study claims that more than 15% of homes shown for sale on Zillow and Trulia weren’t actually on the market, and up to 30% of homes that were listed for sale in an MLS were not identified by Zillow and Trulia as being on the market.
Stavros concluded, “Ask any REALTOR how they feel about the accuracy of the pricing estimates given for homes on these sites, and the answers will be eye opening. While these sites can and do offer some great articles regarding buying and selling a home, when it comes to knowing the market, you must go local. This includes finding what is actually available for sale in the market place and getting an accurate analysis of the correct value of a home. Local REALTORS are in the trenches of the Knoxville real estate market every day, no mathematical formula will ever replace that experience.”