Don’t Place All Of Your Trust In The MLS
The Internet has become a great tool for home buyers. You can sit at home and wade your way through the MLS looking for that ‘perfect’ home. You can use Google maps to check out the neighborhood, you can even zoom in for a close up of the house, street, and neighbors (although it’s not live and the pictures could be a year or two old). You can even visit state and county websites for more information to help you make your final decisions.
All that is fine, however, I wouldn’t place all my trust in what you see and read online, and I certainly wouldn’t place all my faith in the MLS. The Internet, and the MLS for that matter, contained information that has been supplied by humans, and we make mistakes. The MLS often has information missing that could be of importance to you.
Education is a good example. If you have decided that a particular school is a requirement when looking at buying a home, using that as a search criteria will see you missing up to half of all listings. Why? There are a lot of sellers, and real estate agents, that leave out the school district from the listing. Sometimes it is through ignorance, often it is intentionally, especially if there is any doubt about a schools actual boundaries.
If there are important considerations when buying a home, don’t rely on the MLS. Sometimes your best approach is to either rely on a local real estate agent, or to hop in your car and to drive around the area covered by that school – as you do, make a note of the homes that are for sale – you can then look them up on the MLS for more information.
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