24 Jun 08 Can Homebuyers Trust Online Real Estate Valuators?

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As more and more homebuyers turn to the Internet to help them in their search for their next home, many have stumbled upon home valuator websites such as Zillow.com and Cyberhomes.com. The premise of these websites is simple – they allow the user to enter an address and a computer generated value is then outputted. While these services are designed to aid homebuyers when researching a prospective home, problems have continuously arisen with inaccurate values being taken far too seriously by users.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently did a report on the accuracy of these types of websites. They reported that the percentage of errors on home estimates from such websites is still very large. After reading the story, I decided to enter my home address into both Zillow.com and Cyberhomes.com.

Zillow.com estimated my home to be worth $478,500, while Cyberhomes.com estimated my home to be worth $514,701. Zillow.com told me that my home is 1,833 square feet, 3-bed, 2-bath, on a 17,056 square foot lot; Cyberhomes.com didn’t know how many bedrooms there were, stated my home to be 2,090 square feet, with 2 bathrooms, on a 22,220 square foot lot. In reality, my home is 2,200 square feet, 4-bed, 3-bath, and to be honest I do not know the actual lot size or its current market value.

These particular discrepancies can be very misleading for a potential buyer, should I ever decide to sell. I am willing to bet that discrepancies exist in the majority of home valuations created by these sites, especially for users that do not have comparable sales in the area of the home they are researching.

The truth is… a home is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it, and in today’s market I wouldn’t suggest anyone base their asking price on the estimation of a website using computer generated figures. For a true valuation of your home, I strongly recommend hiring a professional home inspector to conduct a walkthrough inspection of your house and then a professional appraiser. I also suggest that you compare your home to those of homes in your neighborhood that are currently listed, or have recently sold.

Curious to see how far off Internet home valuator websites are on your home? I am! If you have the time, let us and our readers know!

Tags: cyberhomes.com, home estimates, home inspection, home valuator, home values, homebuyers, house value, market value, the san francisco chronicle, zillow.com

06 Jun 08 Foreclosure Auction for Phoenix Real Estate

The Real Estate Disposition Corp. has scheduled a massive auction this weekend for homes that have foreclosed and are in possession of lenders. The event, to be held at the Phoenix Convention Center, will start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning; an estimated 450 properties will be up for auction over the course of the two-day event.

Home auctions, both foreclosure auctions and new home auctions, have become increasingly more common over the past six months. Home builders have helped to reduce their inventories by utilizing auctions, and as lenders are repossessing more homes due to the ever increasing rate of foreclosures, they are finding that auctions are an effective method to reduce their real estate owned.

Of course homebuyers are also in favor of buying their next home from auctions too, as they are receiving large discounts for the properties they purchase. One report suggested that homes valued at around $300,000 will have a starting bid of under $100,000.

Learn more about this weekend’s auction in Phoenix and other home auctions across the nation by visiting USHomeAuction.com.

Tags: band owned, foreclosure auction, home auction, Home Builders, homebuyers, phoenix convention center, phoenix real estate, real estate disposition corp, real estate owned, reo

15 Feb 08 California New Homes, Home Builders and Real Estate

New Homes Section is starting its initial expansion into California. We hope to offer 100% of our services to California home buyers and home builders within the next three months, but as you know that depends on our search engine success with California keywords. We are going to enter the market offering free advertising to home builders for several months. This will hopefully allow us to start, and build a lasting relationship with California home builders.

A few months of free advertising on New Homes Section will give us the opportunity to send home buyers to California builders and hopefully the home builders will find value in the free services we offer. During the first month or so we’re going to offer home builder logo placement in our new California Home Builder section; this section, for our Arizona home builders, is popular and we hope that California home buyers find value in it as well.

I personally am excited about our initial expansion and can see that our team members are embracing the opportunity and hard work that lies ahead.

We will keep you updated on what happens frequently.

Tags: California, california home builders, California new homes, California Real Estate, homebuilders, homebuyers, new homes section