More often than not the everyday consumer will use websites like Zillow.com Realtor.com & Redfin.com to conduct their home search and there is nothing wrong with that.

However, you are still limiting your resources if you search without an expert to guide you. Other websites use the information from the MLS (Multiple Listing Service only available to Realtors) to post their new listings.

Not everything posted on Zillow is in real-time and the information provided is not nearly as robust as what is provided to a Realtor on the MLS. Here is a real-life example, person A used Zillow to search for a home and found one they love. The listing on Zillow did not indicate it was being sold “as-is”. However, this is what is indicated on the MLS and official listing. So in this example, the customer was misled at first.

Home Search Example

See above gallery slider. Starting on the first slide here is a very basic example of a Residential, Single-Family, Detached homes only search in Monmouth and Ocean County NJ. This yields 2,865 results.

On the second slide, we then take these results and define it by status as “active” meaning we want to see only the active listings and exclude the “coming soon”, “under contract”, “continue to show”, or “closed”. All of these have separate dates to choose from. Lastly, we give some pricing parameters to see only the homes that are listed between $500,000 – $600,000. This brings our results down to 284.

On the third slide, we then create a polygonal geographic search in the areas that we want to see homes. In this case, our “client” wants to see homes in Red Bank, NJ and along the Jersey Shore. This brings our results down to 26 homes.

The final slide shows a list of all 26 homes with some basic information shown in each column. These can be sorted in ascending or descending order, status, county, etc. There are a variety of ways to display & sort the information here. We can also choose to see a detailed list or even go back to the map and select homes we want to see based on location.

Why Use a Realtor to Search for a Home?

Using a Realtor to search for a home is extremely important. For starters, you’ll likely be looking to hire a Real Estate agent anyway so why not get them involved from the beginning? Maybe you are looking at homes that have contingent offers or maybe they are in a flood zone or being sold as-is. If you’re not aware of this, it can cause problems.

With a Realtor, you will get plenty of guidance, understand the process better, get access to a network of other agents, and potentially get knowledge about properties that have yet to hit the MLS.

Recently, sites like Zillow flood the search results with Contingent offers. It is not to say they are forever lost, but you can certainly spend your efforts and time more wisely.

Start Your NJ Home Search Today

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