More than 90% of people start the process of looking for their next home by going online, and if one searches the term “Washington DC homes,” there are more than 134,000,000 results. How can you be sure not to miss the perfect house buried in all that info?

If you are like most Americans, you’ll skip to one or more of the big, national portals – Zillow, Trulia and/or Realtor.com. Each has assembled an enormous amount of information in a consumer-friendly interface. While we encourage you to look at these sites, we also want you to understand they simply do not have complete and accurate listing content.

McEnearney Associates recently took a snapshot of listings in our local multiple listing system (MLS) in zip codes where they have offices. The results showed 910 listings for sale, active or pending. In Zillow, there were only 703. In Trulia, there were 706. And Realtor.com showed too many listings with 940. This is due to the enormous amount of data feeds these portals are receiving from local brokerages (like us) and MLS systems across the country. It’s a challenge for them to assimilate all the data on a timely basis. And for Zillow and Trulia, lots of sellers opt-out of having their home displayed due to the inaccuracy of the computer-generated estimate of their home’s value.

What does all that mean for you, especially if you’re looking for a home? Reliance on only the national portals means you will miss listings that are on the market, and you will find listings for sale that have already sold. At best, that leads to frustration – at worst, it means missing the home that was perfect for your needs. So what should you do? By all means, look at those national portals, but remember to rely on your local brokerage for accurate information. Remember those 910 listings that were in our local MLS? On YourHBHomes.com, there were 911. We update our listing content every 15 minutes.

Work with Halm Brzezinski Homes – partner with Jennifer Halm and Ginny Brzezinski and we can help you find your perfect home. Knowing what to offer, negotiating the right price, and attending to all of the details between contract and closing simply cannot be done by a national search portal. It can be done only by a great agent who knows the local real estate market and understands your interests and needs. Ready to look?  Contact us at info@yourHBHomes.com