Home Shopping Network

House-hunting is the best!

One of our members is currently house shopping. He is using a realtor, however one of the houses he is looking at was way overpriced in his estimation. He suggested using publicly available county property appraiser information as well as realty sites likes Zillo.com and Homes.com to get a good ballpark. Granted, you can't put too much stock in these sites, because they don't always use fair metrics to calculate a price. However, these are the sorts of tools that the public will use to estimate a price, which kind of cements "value" as a buyer and as a seller. Interestingly, realtors will often use valuation software to generate an adjusted price per square foot. All of these things get stirred in the pot with what your neighbors may have bought or sold their house for, and you have all the fun of house hunting.

It is probably a good idea to meet with a realtor as soon as you are interested in getting the process started. You can let him or her know what you are looking for and then you can start to get relevant suggestions. As long as you're upfront with them, you shouldn't feel bad about wasting someone's time. Even a year out of seriously being ready to buy a home, schedule a meeting with a realtor, and check in in six months. Buying a house involves many spinning plates, and sometimes you need to put your self in a position to take advantage of an opportunity.

Profit!