A representative from Realtor.com called me to announce that Realtor.com had redesigned its web site, which I already knew because I read Inman News and receive daily Google alerts. Curious to check it out and view it from a consumer's perspective, I popped over to Realtor.com this morning.
Wow, the site is beautiful. It's supposed to offer easy navigation and enrich the personal search experience. From all appearances, it is a vast improvement. For one thing, the top of the page has a search box, which lets users look for homes in a certain ZIP code or neighborhood. I entered 95818, which is the ZIP for homes in Land Park and Curtis Park. I waited about 30 seconds and then received a message that said, "Oops, a glitch," and suggested I try my back button.
Finally, the page loaded. Below the search box photographs of listings began to appear. Some never materialized and were represented by a question mark, but others loaded with dates of May and August. You'd think that the designers of this site would want newer listings to populate that position, wouldn't you?
I clicked the search button and after several minutes, the first page of homes appeared. Hmm . . . I wondered if I could find any of my listings in Land Park. I clicked the next page, waited a few minutes and received a message saying Safari could not produce the page because Realtor.com's server was not responding. At this point, I gave up.
I'm confident that in time Realtor.com will work out the kinks and the bugs. Or maybe the site doesn't work well with Safari and requires Firefox?
In the meanwhile, if you're looking for homes in Land Park or Curtis Park, I suggest you go to my web site at Elizabeth Weintraub.com to search for them. You can customize your search and even look street by street. It updates every 15 minutes.
Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub
The Short Sale, by Elizabeth Weintraub, coming from Archer Ellison in January 2009.
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Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available through bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.
Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.
The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
