Online Real Estate Resources Can Cost Home Buyers and Sellers Tens of Thousands!

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These days, who doesn’t want to find out information instantly? The truth is that with the technology available to us, we’ve become accustomed to finding things out – NOW. Well, when it comes to buying and selling homes there are lots of resources available online and they all provide that instant gratification. The question is, “how accurate are they?”

To help answer this and to help save our clients money, we pulled together some excellent examples of recent values available on Zillow to show you just how much money you stand to lose if basing your decisions on some of these resources.

I’m going to give you some specific examples so you can see. Here in North Orange County, a home in La Habra on Country Hills Dr that sold for $575,000. The Zillow estimate was $555,000. That is a big difference.  We have a house in Fullerton on Clear Creek Dr. The Zillow estimate was $631,000. The house was listed for $700,000 and sold in 9 days. So they missed it by about 69,000.

We have a home in Upland on Wilson Ave that Sold for $585,000 but Zillow was showing it for $550,000. One Home in Diamond Bar’s Exclusive “The Country” Community was listed on Zillow for $1,287,000 and it actually sold for $1,450,000. So Zillow missed it by $163,000.  

At the end of the day, they mean well, but Zillow is really a tool to drive people to the website. They earn money that way. People trying to save money by using Zillow for evaluations are really doing themselves a disservice and potentially costing themselves tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are better off to hire either a real estate agent to sell or an appraiser to give them an actual value.


Mortgage Lenders Online Lure Buyer With “Low Rates” Then Pile On Hidden Fees

Online mortgage lenders are also a source for homebuyers. These companies tend to bring in leads by heavily marketing very low rates but then slapping buyers with other hidden fees and costs that often offset those low rates. What’s more, these businesses are usually not local and the level of customer service is lacking. In our many years of living and working in our surrounding communities, we have developed longstanding strong relationships with quality core members of the housing and mortgage industry.

Remember, online resources are great for a basic feel of our marketplace but if you turn to these venues to save money, you will likely end up saving less. For an accurate, customized one-on-one consultation with our office, contact us today. We will gladly connect you with our long-standing preferred partners in the housing and mortgage industry. The knowledge and experience that you get from working with a real estate agent cannot be compared to any online real estate service. Contact us today – we look forward to working with you!