SEARCHING FOR A HOME

SEARCHING FOR A HOME

One would think that searching for a home would be relatively easy in today's world of information technology. All you need to do is sit down in front of your computer and start clicking away. There is a seemingly endless supply of web sites which show houses for sale. Details of the homes, photos, virtual tours, and such are abundant. . . . BUT THEN. . . .

• You call about a house which you like and you are told that it is already under contract;
• You go to look at a house which you like and you find another house on the same street which you did not find on the web site where you saw the other house;
• You try to get more information about a house by sending an email, but you never get a reply;
• You make a phone call to get more information about a house, but can only leave a voice message to which you never get a reply;
• You make a phone call and actually get an answer, but the agent answering tries to sell you a different house than the one for which you called;
• . . . . .

Wait a minute. Wasn't this supposed to be easy? How can I stop this frustration?

Almost all real estate brokerages place their listings on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This allows the home to be marketed to all real estate agents in the area. Of course, for that small number of brokerages which occassionally do not place their listings on the MLS, don't worry nobody else will find these homes either. (If you happen to be selling a home, make sure that you avoid these idiotic brokerages.) The MLS has an internet data exchange program, whereby a brokerage agrees to either let its listings be shown on other brokerages' sites or does not allow them to be shared. If the brokerage does not allow its listings to be shared, then the listings of other brokerages will not be shown on its site either. If a brokerage agrees to the internet data exchange, then other brokerages listings will be shown on its site as well as theirs being displayed on others sites with the exception of those few brokeages who do not allow an exchange. (If you happen to be selling a home, make sure that you avoid these idiotic brokerages, which do not allow the exchange.) For the brokerages that permit sharing, the listings will be uploaded to their sites on a daily basis. For example, if brokerage A puts a listing on the MLS today, it will show up on the site of brokerage B tomorrow.

Let's skip all of this discussion and get to the point.

There is a site which will provide a more comprehensive set of listings than any other site. This site is www.homesdatabase.com/ront. Here is how it works:

• This site is directly associated with the MLS, therefore it will contain all of the listings on the MLS, including those of the brokerages which do not participate in the internet data exchange;
• The listings, including any changes to listings, from any brokerage will appear on this site in real time rather than the next day;
• It will only display listings which are available. Listings which have a contract with a contingency will have the status displayed; Even houses which are under contract can be shown as long as the Seller is okay with it, but obviously the house can only be sold to one party, so any contract would be a back-up contract with a contingency to release the first contract;
• The complete address will be given for each property to eliminate any guessing and unnecessary phone calls;
• This site has a feature called Homes Prospector, which allows one to put a personal search criterion or as many search criteria as one would like into the system and they would receive emails as new or updated listings come on the market on a daily basis.
• When you find that house that interests you, then you can contact the experts at Zenith Realty, who will promptly respond to your request, to learn more about the property or to make arrangements to see the property.
• It's that simple.

Call Ron Trzcinski of Zenith Realty at 410-935-5844 for more information.