Show Low, AZ

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Sometimes I have the overwhelming desire to take Zillow out behind the Barn and shoot it like an old rabid dog! I know online exposure is necessary but I really have a problem with Zillow's zestimates.

I just went on to Zillow to update the pricing on one of my listings and I was reviewing the Zestimates and only one of them was even close to a realistic price. It is so totally unfair to our sellers to have their listings exposed to millions of people who all think Zillow's Zestimates are the God of values. What do they base those figures on, does anyone have any idea?

All I know is that every one of those values was so far off that it made me sick. What chance do our sellers have of getting a fair price for their properties when buyers come in with an expectation that they can buy a property for what Zillow says it is worth. It just isn't right.

Second complaint here, out of date information. I can't tell you how many times I get calls from my buyers asking about something they saw on Zillow and when I look it up it either sold or expired a year ago. If they pull their data from the MLS systems, how can they not pick up that something is sold or expired. I had one buyer get really angry with me because they found their perfect home on Zillow, only to find out it had sold to someone else over a year ago. I had a heck of a time explaining that I didn't have any control over that information and that Zillow was the one that was wrong, not me.

Anyone have any ideas how we can make a lot of noise about this? NAR is the one who promoted syndication of our listing information with Realtor.com. Now there are too many sites to even guess at that are distributing this information all over the globe. When it's not correct, who is responsible?

Any thoughts?

Okay, not so much a lesson but a rant. I swear there are a lot of Real Estate Agents out there who don't know which end of the camara to hold on to when they are taking listing pictures or if they do, they must be cross eyed! I know I have seen this discussion before but I experienced first hand yesterday how horrible some of the MLS pictures are.

I was helping a friend look for property out of town via Realtor.com. Most of the listings either had no pictures, or just a couple of pictures, or pictures that were so horrible you couldn't tell anything at all about the houses. How in the world do they expect to get anyone to call on them when they take pictures that are not identifiable? I mean seriously, some of those pictures were so bad you didn't know what you were looking at. Some looked like they were taken by an agent with wings? They were taken down on a room but were so crooked or cockeyed that it looked like the room was tilted on it's side.

I wonder sometimes if it is intentional so no one will want to show the properties so the agents can sell the homes themselves, or are they just badly in need of some photography classes. I am not professional photographer myself, but at least I can tell through the view finder if the picture is straight or not. Some of these were so out of focus or crooked you really couldn't telll anything about the homes at all.

Maybe we need to make it a requirement that all agents take some photography classes as part of their continuing education. Maybe they shouldn't be allowed to put a listing in the MLS without pictures. No pictures, no listing exposure. All I know is I can understand why the consumers get frustrated because I have never seen such horribly illustrated properties as I saw yesterday.

Oh well, rant is over. Have a Happy Holiday Week everyone.

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Don't know if anyone besides me has noticed but the inventory of Homes For Sale is WAY down. I had clients in town over the weekend and they were really disappointed to find that 2 of the 7 homes they wanted to see had sold between Wed. & Friday. What homes we did view while very nice homes, were higher priced than the buyers wanted to go. They came thinking they were going to find the perfect home at a great price and went home realizing that wasn't the case any longer. It is possible that the people who have been sitting on their proverbial fences may have waited a bit too long.

The market is shifting again. I'm not sure whether this signals the end of the REO market and that most of the inventory in our area is depleted or if it simply means that people are getting back to work, working out loan modifications with their lenders, or if it is just a lull before the storm.

I'm inclined to say, at least in the White Mountain Area, that we may be seeing the steady decline of the last couple of years slowing down. Those deals and bargains are just not out there any more and while the buyers coming late to the market still want a deal, the sellers remaining, even some of the Banks, are simply saying NO! They know they have something someone wants and they just aren't willing to take the kind of loss that they have been in the past. They have a product to sell and if someone wants it they are going to have to meet a certain price point to get it. My last Bank Owned Sale took six counter offers to come to an agreement. The Buyers had to come up significantly on their original offer in order to purchase the property.

Perhaps that is a good thing. While it may be a bit disappointing to the Buyers who have stayed on the fence a bit too long, it may be good for the sellers who have wanted to sell but were unable to because they just couldn't afford to take the kind of losses the buyers expected.

Is this the year we begin to see things turn around? We can only hope!

AR REALLY DOES BRING IN BUSINESS!

I have been busier than I have been in a long time and it is wonderful. Much of that business is thanks to AR and the wonderful people who share their experiences on AR. I have had several referrals lately from AR and I really appreciate every one of them and I haven't even had time to do much blogging or posting lately either.

It just seems to be the nature of Real Estate to be very very busy, or sitting around wondering if you are ever going to talk to another client. Right now it seems like I'm running in circles chasing my tail and I just can't catch it.

Never-the-less, I decided to just say Thanks to all the fantastic people who are on AR and are willing to share their experiences and their special vision of our industry and for the referrals that you are willing to share.

I'll return the favor I can assure you.

Have a wonderful and productive week.

Sandra Paulow