Eppraisals

Find the 10 least expensive and 10 most expensive zip codes in an area.

Trulia’s Listing Price Graph

Below is a graph of the Nashville list price trends over time. Feel free to use the search box at the bottom of the graph to search other cities or zip codes.

Nashville Real Estate - Trulia

Get Estimates on Home Services

In this article, I’ll discuss some of the more popular tools out there, how they are helping you and how you should not use them.

Trulia is more than a real estate search engine. While there are definitely more comprehensive real estate search engines I would recommend, Trulia offers a few unique benefits not given through many other sources like: a Google street and satellite view of the home, list price per square foot calculated, and the ability to ask a question about the property as you’re looking at it. Although, from what I hear, they are trying to get MLS data, which would make them much more competitive. Trulia’s Advice and Opinion is a great section because it really acknowledges and reaffirms that local professionals are still the experts on the real estate market and give them the opportunity to interact, give advice, answer questions and share knowledge.

While I think it’s a great automated attempt, I am still not confident enough to make life decisions based on  the comparable data, properties and recently sold homes. I will say that it is nice that some information is provided, but it is not a complete picture or accurate for assessing a home’s value.  The new homes and foreclosure listings seem like it will give great information, but it doesn’t give any specifics. It’s only a segway to the builder to collect information or a service of which you pay to get details on foreclosures. Because of that and the fact that it gets its data from various sources instead of the MLS, it is not an effective tool for one-stop home shopping in a local market. The third shortcoming is the amount of information provided directly about the listing itself compared to what is possible to be pulled. Overall, Trulia’s benefits do outweigh their drawbacks.

Zillow is another popular consumer site. It has undergone several major changes since it began. The one thing I really like about Zillow are the Guides. They are not nearly as easy to find as they once were, but they are now under the blanket of the Advice section. Guides are provided in a wide range of topics from home buying and selling to home improvement, gardening, mortgages and more. It was one of the first to offer Q&A on a specific property, which is a benefit, though that service is underutilized. For the longest time, that feature was extremely hard to find, but its position has improved. Zillow also has a unique and helpful way of giving a visual of the homes on a map through Microsoft Virtual Earth. For individual properties, it also offers a Google Street view, which is helpful as well.

Unfortunately, Zillow has several challenges in its service. As a real estate search engine, it has some of the same issues as Trulia, although Zillow, too, is in talks with MLS data. The advice section does not compare with Trulia’s for the amount of quality information exchanged in the discussion questions and answers. Many times you’ll see more discussion about homeowners or visitors noticing errors in they way a home is listed more than anything else. What people seem to use the most on Zillow are the Zestimates. It was the first automated home value estimator of its kind. Many people use Zillow as a source of value to make home buying or selling decisions, which can create disillusion about the market. Data is not real time and is dated by several months. There seem to be inaccuracies in the data all around. Foreclosures seem to be treated as actual sales transactions. The comparable properties of which it assesses a value is too wide of a range of properties, and does not take into consideration the many factors that contribute to comparable properties. A Comparative Market Analysis from a Realtor, has been and still is the best source of comparable data because it’s custom for that particular home and is based on accurate data and truly comparable homes. I don’t claim that it will always be true, but it still is today.

Walkscore is a brilliant concept. It is so helpful when you are blindly searching an area online (to relocate) to quickly pop in an address and then see how far places of interest are located from that address like: coffee, libraries, schools, groceries, drug stores, restaurants, clothing and music stores, hardware stores, parks and bars. Like many tools online it is not completely accurate, but it still does a fairly decent job at giving you a general idea of the vicinity around your home…in most cases.

Realtor.com is one of the better sources of the actual market comprehensively and locally (which counts the most). As a real estate search engine, it contains a more accurate listing of homes for sale. It does a good job of including the main property features and details. It does show the property on a map and provides a few additional tools that are helpful like monthly payment calculated for it, ability to save the property and ability to ask some direct questions to the Realtor. For property value, they put you in contact with a local realtor who has advertised for that spot. Realtor.com also has a vast amount of articles, videos and resources for you on a wide range of topics.

On the other hand, pictures of the property may or may not be included. This is a HUGE downfall. Realtor.com pulls listings from the local MLS, but it only includes pictures when the listing agent actually adds them. I do not think this is in the consumer’s best interest, but it is the process, nonetheless. The first picture is free to the Realtor, which does not explain to me why some properties have no photos! This is the shortcoming of the Realtor in following their service because Realtor.com is the #1 visited real estate search engine in the country, by far. If your house is listed without a single picture, it’s time to have a serious talk with your Realtor about why your home is not displayed on the website that receives the most traffic for home searching. Additional pictures are an expense to the Realtor. It is not a light fee, so the amount of pictures available on homes is quite limited in most cases.

Google and Yahoo have real estate search engines that are like many sources out there getting their data from a variety of sources. They way the search is laid out is very user friendly, but the data that is returned is not comprehensive at all. Pictures and details may be sparse on the ones they do have listed. These sources should be used for the information and guides they provide about the process, or maps, etc. rather than a real estate search. I would use Google maps (satellite views, street view, etc.) to look up individual properties separate from the real estate search engine.

Homes.com is a bit more comprehensive that many of the other search engines. Much like Realtor.com, it has a high percentage of the listings shown, but it may be low on photos. It is disappointing because photos are so important on a real estate search. It allows you to map the home, see area facts, climate and has a few nice features. When it comes to value it does a better job of saying…”here are a few homes that have sold near you, and click here if you want a comparative market analysis from a local realtor.” It doesn’t necessarily claim to have accurate and up to date comparison data, but it does include some helpful information. It too, has a decent section for resources. Overall, it has some interesting features to offer.

With all of the bells and whistles of some of these nationwide search engines, sometimes your best bet will still be the local search engines that tie directly into the MLS area where you are searching. There is usually a local MLS search engine for every area available to consumers. In my area, it’s Realtracs. You also have search engines on individual agent sites, which tie into the MLS as well. “Sometimes” these sites are more informative than the local MLS because of map integration, ability to save and make appointments on properties, and other added features. These are usually your best sources for photos of the property, disclosures about the property, and links to perhaps more photos, virtual tours and even more information. The one thing it can not help is when a real estate agent does not understand the importance of good quality photos and information about the property. So it is up to the agent to provide this information about their listings, unfortunately. Use these sites for your real estate search and some of the others for informational resources, more map views and additional features.

With all of the innovation out there in real estate online technology, we’ve still got a long way to go…stay tuned!