4 ms·

Another problem my wife and I have run into is lag time: there is a delay between posting things in the MLS and then onto the internet sites. That delay is us

Another problem my wife and I have run into is lag time: there is a delay between posting things in the MLS and then onto the internet sites. That delay is usually the time it takes for the better deals to have an offer pending on them. Even though the UI of the "official" MLS site that our agent uses sucks compared to sites like zillow and movoto, you can find the cheaper houses before they go pending. Too bad there isn't a filter on the "status" field in the MLS web search (such as, filter out the 1/2 to 2/3 of houses that are already pending???) That said, Zillow is a wonderful tool to check price/sales history.

jpdoctor 14y ago
> you can find the cheaper houses before they go pending Which tells you the value of realtors: They don't wait around to get the highest bid (a commission in the hand is worth two in the bush.)
- cabinguy 14y ago
  A commission in the hand is worth two in the bush...but a purchase agreement submitted by a potential buyer can have a time limit attached to it. If the seller wants to wait around, they may lose out of the initial offer, which is (most) often the best offer.
  - jpdoctor 14y ago
    > which is (most) often the best offer. I assume there is deep research on this factoid from the non-realtor community, because then the right thing to do is use the MLS API to be first and submit a lowball offer with a one-day fuse. But I gotta tell you: It sounds like the standard realtor spiel, and it works on people with little experience in buying/selling things with large asset values (like companies or houses).
    - Domenic_S 14y ago
      Realtors get around this by giving you an offer review date: "we're looking at offers this Monday". It induces all the offers to come out of the woodwork and encourages bidding wars.
  - msellout 14y ago
    empirically false.
xradionut 14y ago
"That said, Zillow is a wonderful tool to check price/sales history." Maybe in your market. Their data is crap in many areas.

jpdoctor 14y ago

> you can find the cheaper houses before they go pending Which tells you the value of realtors: They don't wait around to get the highest bid (a commission in the hand is worth two in the bush.)

cabinguy 14y ago
A commission in the hand is worth two in the bush...but a purchase agreement submitted by a potential buyer can have a time limit attached to it. If the seller wants to wait around, they may lose out of the initial offer, which is (most) often the best offer.
- jpdoctor 14y ago
  > which is (most) often the best offer. I assume there is deep research on this factoid from the non-realtor community, because then the right thing to do is use the MLS API to be first and submit a lowball offer with a one-day fuse. But I gotta tell you: It sounds like the standard realtor spiel, and it works on people with little experience in buying/selling things with large asset values (like companies or houses).
  - Domenic_S 14y ago
    Realtors get around this by giving you an offer review date: "we're looking at offers this Monday". It induces all the offers to come out of the woodwork and encourages bidding wars.
- msellout 14y ago
  empirically false.

xradionut 14y ago

"That said, Zillow is a wonderful tool to check price/sales history." Maybe in your market. Their data is crap in many areas.