Almost every day a Trulia user posts a question in the Q&A section about a RealtyTrac home that isn't for sale. That's because RealtyTrac lists homes on Trulia that have received a foreclosure notice, which means the owners have fallen behind on their payments. It doesn't mean the home is on the market. With any luck, the Sacramento Metrolist MLS, which is a separate company from the Sacramento Board of REALTORS®, will put a stop to that practice.
A little birdie told me that Metrolist is finalizing a deal with Trulia to send listings directly to Trulia and that Trulia will no longer accept feeds from outside sources. Concerned that this new arrangement may affect our Lyon Real Estate branded listings on Trulia, I asked the PTB (powers that be) about it yesterday and was assured that our Lyon listings will not be affected by this. Which is great news.
For the public, however, this is phenomenal news. It would mean Sacramento home buyers and sellers will have access to every listing in MLS in one place, information that was previously privy only to real estate agents. True, they can now search on the Sacramento Bee's web site, but that information is managed in a different manner. The Trulia site offers Sacramento home buyers a larger mix of data and information already.
It makes me wonder, though, how many other MLS companies across the U.S. are working out a similar arrangement with Trulia? I suspect Sacramento is not alone in this venture. I may have my finger on the pulse of real estate activity in Sacramento, but I don't know what is going on in other parts of the country. It would make sense for Trulia to feature all multiple listing service properties in America.
This move is likely to make Trulia a giant.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, coming soon to a bookstore near you.
Photo: Big Stock Photo
---
Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
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 the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
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.
Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.
Elizabeth- Our MLS has gone public but they have created this really neat way to give the listing agent all the leads it gets at no charge to the agents, their idea I think is to try to circumvent the bottom feeders and listing scrapers.
Elizabeth, what's a question and answer section in your MLS? I couldn't figure this one out since you have probably a different system. I do get calls abour foreclosures that are either old or not foreclosed yet. Just curious about how you out there work.
But is your MLS on Trulia, Katerina?
Barbara: The Q&A is on Trulia, not MLS.
Lss than 1/2 of all real estate licensees in the US are in any MLS. The sites like T will never have all listings. Even MLS agents have Non-MLS listings on their sites. You have to find their personal web pages.
Elizabeth, you've sent me off on a learning experience. Trulia has my listings and all of our MLS listings on it. Is it wise to check Q and A for your town?
Elizabeth: This might be happening here too. I get odd calls from folks saying they saw a foreclosure home online and I type the address into the MLS and there is no listing, and the tax records doesn't show the bank owns it. Explains a lot.
That is refreshing. The vast amount of data out there that has been put forth by Trulia, Zillow, etc. is often garbage.
Quality data will help us all - all including the consumer. MLS is already available publically. Might as well make it easy for Trulia.
Hi Elizabeth!
Just to clarify - We are currently working with many MLSs and will continue to add more. We are also working with many other listing partners and will continue to do so.
@Barbara - Yes. It's a good idea to check to see what questions are being asked and what blog posts are being published on Voices in your area. You might find a consumer to help.
Best,
Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia
Great post. A centralized information source would be great.
Elizabeth, with the Trulia Sacramento connection your listings and your potential buyers will get wider exposure. That can only help the client - Realtor interaction.
Sure, Barbara. It's always a good idea to connect with home buyers and sellers in your town, and Trulia is a good place to do it.
Hi Chris Ann: I don't know why RealtyTrac lists preforeclosures as homes for sale when they aren't for sale. It's very confusing for buyers.
Rudy: You guys do a great job at Trulia. It's one of my favorite sites, and I support a few communities there.
Hi Gary: I was invited to attend a private roundable forum at our Sacramento Metrolist a few weeks back. I wasn't going to attend because I've been so swamped, so when I received the evite, I ignored it. But when the president called and asked for my participation, I couldn't say no. I know how important it is to give back and volunteer time.
Metrolist was interested in hearing about social networking. I wasn't the only Sacramento real estate agent who attended -- there were about a dozen of us from the Sacramento region -- including fellow Active Rainers Paula Swayne, her daughter Kelly, and Erin Attardi -- but the others I did not know.
The California Association of Realtors is rolling out a statewide MLS system this spring. Did you know that?
Elizabeth: We have had a public site for some time and are currentlytrying to make it more consumer friendly. All of the listings are on the public site and neighboring MLS's also have public access. Someday all of the listings in the state will be on one site.
Elizabeth,
this is interesting. If the feed will go from MLS, then I would not be surprised to see it becoming common practice, as MLS providers are usually serving a lot of different MLSs, so they are capable of streamlining the process.
We may easily end up with some larger MLS service providers offering it very soon, and smaller companies following the suit.
Elizabeth ~ I have a personal bias against RealtyTrac, and after having carefully followed the Q&A's on Trulia Voices for a while now, I can tell you that a direct feed from MLS's would be a drastic improvement. I think RT's entries (I won't call them listings) just confuse and frustrate the public. If that takes Trulia to 'giant' status, then so be it! They already have the best Q&A system on the internet, IMHO. Nice post!
I have a better idea. Let's scrap raltor.com altogether and put all MLS listings on Trulia. It is a far better interface.
I have a territory on realtytrac and am always explaining that thr homes people ask about may not be listed. But it is worth it for the inquiries.
Most of the inquiries regarding RealtyTrac's preforeclosure announcements (I hesitate to go so far as to use the word listing in the same sentence with RealtyTrac), are from people who are asking if a $500,000 home is really for sale for $25,000 and wanting to know how they can buy it. I haven't found those types of inquiries to be qualified leads.