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One of the huge changes in the real estate industry today is the vast amount of data available to buyers and sellers. Consumers in the Information Age can do their own research on market conditions, listings and emerging trends. The real question is what’s the source of the data being presented and is it reliable?
The March issue of REALTOR magazine examined this trend. The article written by Brian Summerfield acknowledged that consumers can be often be misled by sites such as Zillow, which offers it visitors a “Zestimate” of what a particular property is worth. These types of values are often gathered from the average sales price of a particular zip code.
“You hear a lot of talk in the industry about “empowered consumers”—those who enter into a contract with you armed with a boatload of information about homes for sale and local market conditions,” says Summerfield.
“Consumers can access a host of real estate resources anytime, anywhere, from their desktops or their smartphones, whether it’s information about a specific house or inventory level in their community.
But more—and more varied—sources of information can cause confusion as consumers come across data that’s incomplete, contradictory, outdated, or flat-out wrong. That may lead buyers and sellers to erroneous conclusions about a home’s value, the prevalence of distressed sales, or the costs involved in a transaction, to name a few things.
That’s where you, the knowledgeable real estate practitioner, can show your value. When it comes to information, you can help sort fact from myth or provide context to the random data points consumers regularly come across. ”
While consumers will continue to use the Internet daily to research available properties, there’s no substitute for a full-time real estate professional who knows and understands the local marketplace. Windermere Real Estate prides itself in providing timely and accurate reports on the Sun Valley real estate market. If you would like to receive our monthly Market Snapshot via e-mail, contact your Windermere agent today. If you are currently not working with a Windermere agent, e-mail us at sunvalley@windermere.com and we will add you to our monthly mailing list.
Dan Gorham
Managing Broker
Windermere Real Estate
208/622-2700 Ketchum
208/788-1700 Hailey
208/720-4077 Cell
