What online search engines DON'T know about your home

There are many great Northern Virginia area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE selling strategies so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (703) 401-7327 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

We get questions from clients all the time about the accuracy of the data produced by online home search engines like Zillow and Trulia. While these sites can be a great way to start your home search and useful in many ways, it's important to take their information with a grain of salt. These sites use algorithms and have specific variables such as square footage, number of bedroom, and number of bathrooms they use to determine the value of a home.

The reason that you need a licensed Realtor to look at these numbers to see if they are correct is because the last thing you want is incorrect information negatively affecting your buying or selling process. These search engines have no idea where the market is headed and don't take into account so many different variables that are unique to your neighborhood and your specific home. This can affect the value of your home significantly. In one case, Zillow reported a home's value at 1.5 million, but the home ended up selling for $2.9 million. That's almost a 100% price variation.

What's the lesson here? Call a Realtor. Find out what's happening in your specific market and how it affects your home price. Be sure to give us a call if you are interested in buying or selling a home, we would love to help you out. Thanks for joining us today, we hope to hear from you soon!