Zillow

[ESMonitor]

Hello,

I wanted to ask if anyone has had success using Zillow for house hunting...with any tips, do's and don'ts from past experiences from using Zillow or buying your first house.

Here is website: www.zillow.com

Thanks!
ES

[snafu]

Buying 1st house... know your FICO score and get financing in place so that you know limits. Shop for financing, it's the highest cost item you ever buy. Plead for every point reduction, it doesn't seem like much but it adds up over 30 years as profit for the lender, cost to you. Ask lender to wave some of those silly closing costs like documentation, copies, transmission [sorry it's a long list].

I suggest you really look at an amotorization table and understand how the figures work against you. The monthly payment includes other things like property taxes, interest, and mortgage insurance if you don't have a minimum 20% down payment, possibly HOA fees depending on location. So many $$$$$ spent, so little to mortgage principal.

Hire a GREAT real estate agent, they save a ton of headaches/heartaches getting you the best price, avoiding mistakes, saving time by narrowing the market, educate you about areas history [built on drained swamp], suggest ways for you to get more value from purchase, walk you through closing without errors or omissions.

Location, location, location as you can fix anything you don't like about a house except location. Learn traffic pattern and crime rates. What do you need/want now and future. For example you may not care about schools if you don't have kiddos but you might care a lot 5 years into your future. One consistent standard is to work out how much per square foot.

...sorry, likely more info than you asked, zillow is likely swell but don't worry about cosmetics as a can of paint [$ 40.] can fix the myriad of ugly.

[ESMonitor]

Snafu,

Thanks for the knowledge. You brought up some points I haven't thought about. Right now I am just saving up $$ living in an apt and plan to stay put here for a couple more years. Id like to get a $160K house with a 20% down payment. I'm not there yet, but in the meantime, I can plan and learn as much as possible for the almighty transaction. Any book suggestions or other tips?

ES

[Goldy]

I used Zillow to shop for houses but I don't put much stock in their price estimates. I did use Zillow when I was refinancing and was amazed at how easy it was to find a lender at a full 1.25% less than wells fargo would match. I highly recommend using the lending facilities at Zillow.

[AnotherReader]

Zillow is pretty useless for house shopping. Half the listings are already sold and many listings on the multiple listing services do not appear on Zillow. Zillow's main goal is to extract revenue from agents by referring buyers to them. Agents pay to appear on Zillow. Zillow shows you the eye candy and hopes you click through to an agent.

Once you are ready to buy, interview at least three agents that specialize in representing buyers. Get referrals from folks that had a smooth buying experience. Find a person that understands your wants and needs and is an experienced negotiator.

The Z-estimates are a joke. They are generated by computer algorithms that consider the property characteristics that are available through public records. I have seen estimates that rely on sales in an adjacent city with different schools.

[btctony]

Zillow is pretty useless for house shopping. Half the listings are already sold and many listings on the multiple listing services do not appear on Zillow.

I agree. To use it and nothing else isn't a good idea. I picked out ten locations and sent them to my realtor. I think something like 3/10 that still showed up on Zillow as active, were actually still on the market.

My realtor used my search criteria in her system which was very helpful. I got an email every time a new property went on the market and it was up to date. The home I ended up purchasing didn't show up on Zillow until I had made my first offer. The listing on Zillow showed "active" all the way up until I closed on the house. It never switched to "pending" after my offer was accepted by the sellers.

As far as looking for a real estate agent, I would say there is nothing better than a referral from friends/family.