Real Estate Expert Shares How to Avoid Pitfalls of Buying, Selling in the Digital Age
At this very moment, countless homeowners across the U.S. are staging their homes, sifting through listings and comparing Zestimates, all in the hopes of buying or selling their house.
While digital platforms such as Zillow and Trulia augment many aspects of the modern real estate process, navigating the housing market can still be challenging and tricky. Whether you are selling, buying or staying in place – or if you are using an agent or not – there are some critical aspects to understand in order to buy and sell a home seamlessly in the digital age.
For starters, understanding yourself is a significant part of the home buying experience. I believe that genuinely thinking about your lifestyle and the micro-dynamics of the market is crucial. As a luxury broker-realtor with decades of experience, I have seen first-hand the pitfalls of buying and selling in the digital age – as such, I urge homeowners to fully grasp the importance of understanding “the person before the property.”
For example, first-time homebuyers – primarily Millennials – are used to purchasing practically almost everything online today, when, where and how they prefer. And when it comes to homes, they are frequently drawn to the aesthetics and attracted to the curb appeal offered by sites like Zillow and Trulia.
However, these platforms can be incredibly daunting and tend to present far too many options. For some homeowners, swiping furiously to choose the best home option can actually stall the decision-making process.
No Matter What Side of the Transaction You Are on, Navigating Real Estate Is Tricky Business
Before getting pulled into this challenging cycle of home shopping, I believe it’s vital to ask the following questions:
- What do you like to do for fun?
- Do you like to entertain guests, or are you a homebody?
- Are you looking for more space than you currently have?
- Do you work from home, or have your own home-based business?
- Do you need convenience and better storage options?
- Do you spend time outside?
- Do you have pets or children?
Digital home buying can obscure the “little” factors that make a significant difference in your new home’s quality. And the answers to many of the above questions can help people better zero in on an ideal type of home for their specific needs.
Zero-In on the Market’s Micro-Dynamics
Rather than focus on the visual details, I believe it’s essential to concentrate on the micro-dynamics of the surrounding market – and knowing the right questions to ask is critical. For example, perhaps you find your dream home, but discover that the neighborhood trash pick-up is scheduled for the wee hours of the morning right outside your prospective master bedroom.
Think outside the box and ask about essential and related aspects, such as whether neighbors report hearing regular air traffic or if there’s a regular train route nearby. Perhaps the street is a regular ambulance or fire truck route – and so on. Keep in mind, with digital home buying, it’s difficult to get the answers to these kinds of crucial topics.
On the flip side, selling a home is no easy process, either, especially in terms of both the actual logistics and the emotional connection people often have to a home. The online universe tends to disproportionality reward those who don’t need to help in the first place – such as the most eye-catching, glamorous homes with the most curb appeal sell.
Furthermore, pricing a home can be a major challenge. Often, sellers overprice on these sites. Sure, homeowners want to make the most amount of money they can from selling their house but putting a higher sticker price on it doesn’t necessarily bring the result they may be looking for at the end of the day.
I suggest that homeowners price a home in the context of supply and demand. Unfortunately, popular digital platforms can often be inaccurate, which can mislead both sellers and buyers. In fact, many sellers end up making less money when using a site like Zillow than they would have from a traditional sale through an agent, according to a recent article. But, as the article states, there’s a segment of sellers who say they prefer “convenience” in exchange for a lesser amount for their home.
For sellers, it can also be complicated to value a home without a professional because every house is in a different geographic location and structural condition, and every seller has different motivations. Digital platforms can end up costing the seller even more money because they wind up selling their home for less than market value without seeing comps or getting an expert opinion.
The Bottom Line
While popular real estate platforms like Zillow and Trulia are helpful digital tools to get a general ballpark idea of when properties in communities are listed or have a price change, it’s important to exercise caution when using their price-valuation tools.
And, according to a recent report, the good news is that approximately nine in 10 Americans still use an agent to buy and sell their homes today.
For those in need of timely, accurate real estate data, it’s important to realize that popular digital platforms are not quite as reliable as other more traditional options. Rather than search for homes on these sites, I suggest that homeowners and house hunters’ focus on establishing a solid relationship with a local real estate agent who truly knows the area you are looking to settle or sell in.
With this approach, you can be assured that you will have the most up-to-date, accurate information – and it can provide a competitive edge over those buyers and sellers dead-set on only using digital tools.
