What percentage of Charleston homes for sale do you want to find online
I can't imagine anyone not answering 100%.
I just got an email from Zillow touting that their traffic is up 71% year over year and suggesting that I should advertise on their website to increase my business. Now unless millions of homeowners are visiting Zillow to check the current zestimate of their home's value on a daily basis, it's pretty likely that a lot of people are searching for homes for sale.
So once again I visited Zillow and Trulia to see what percentage of Charleston homes for sale were available on their websites. Using a 3+ bedroom, 2+ bath single family detached home listed between $200k to $300k as the search criteria, here are the results as compared to the Charleston MLS.
Now you might think that the search interface offered by Zillow and Trulia are fantastic but frankly, I found them to be somewhat "clunky" although Trulia's was significantly better than Zillow's. So if you aren't able to find all the available homes for sale on either of the sites, why would you bother.
In the interest of full disclosure, I do post my personal listings on both Zillow and Trulia (as well as many other popular real estate search sites) in order to get the greatest possible exposure for my seller's homes. But I still don't know why anyone would want to search there.
While we're on the subject of search, a lot of people want to know why some properties that they find are already under contract. Quite simply, if a home is under contract but contingent on a home inspection, financing, etc., it has not yet closed and because it most likely will close but possibly may not, it is still a searchable home for sale. When you click on the listing details, you should notice that it is clearly marked "contingent". So now you know.
Happy house hunting. Search all available homes for sale in Charleston.