Finding 'best value' in local markets
Real estate technology brief
By Inman News, Monday, August 25, 2008.ZipRealty, a full-service residential real estate brokerage, announced a new online tool at ZipRealty.com that allows site users to vote on whether a particular listing is a good value.
Responding to users' enthusiasm for sites that allow shoppers to rank products or services, ZipRealty's new tool asks its clients to answer "Is this home a good value? Yes or No?" for more than 1.4 million MLS-listed homes in 35 markets posted on the site. After a selection is made, the total votes for the home is shown, including how that particular home ranks compared to other homes in the same area in terms of the number of 'YES' votes.
When the home is taken off the market or when the list price of the home is adjusted, the votes for the home are removed and the home is reset on the list of ranked homes in that area.
"Whether searching for a home online or speaking with close friends, home buyers are always interested to find out what others may consider to be a good home for the price," said Patrick Lashinsky, ZipRealty's president and CEO, in a statement.
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Submitted by Myron Lo on August 25, 2008 - 12:14pm.
$49K for a 4 bedroom house in SF Bay Area... Best value I've seen:
http://ziprealty.typepad.com/blog/2008/08/best-value-home.html
Submitted by June Montjoy on August 25, 2008 - 2:58pm.
This opens a can of worms. If agents and sellers use data from at worse, uninformed internet surfers, and at best potential buyers who have a somewhat limited, if not slanted, view of a local market, where does expertise and knowledge that sellers are counting on their agents to provide rank? Consider this: A buyer is interested in a given home and posts many comments that the house is not a good value hoping to drive down the price. Or a malicious neighbor posts a number of comments that the house is over priced. Or agents with competing listings (not that we would ever do such a thing!) rate an overpriced home as a good value to increase the saleability of their own listings. Like I said, a can of worms that probably was not thought through carefully.