Just adding some anecdata to the chatter about these sites and the experience of buying a home:
I began searching for a house in the East Bay about two years ago, culminating in a purchase in June 2013. The first year or so I was using Redfin, Zillow, and Trulia to track availability, prices and neighborhoods. While I got some good information, it wasn't until I started talking to an agent with about thirty years experience in the region that I actually got good leads. The listings on all of these sites seemed to trail the MLS leads she would get by days to weeks. I made several offers over many months, each one more than the last, each time watching the stock get thinner and bids climb higher. My agent was not only finding good potential properties, but also providing a lot of perspective and emotional support.
The house I ultimately bought was something she found via her network of colleagues before it even was placed on the market. I made a bold offer and gulped at what I was putting on the table, but in retrospect I was fortunate considering what's happening in the bay area housing market right now.
Maybe I'm a dummy, but I cannot envision going through the process without a real human pro providing guidance and leads.
Funny I've bought two houses in Berkeley in the last 4 years (bought one, sold it, bought another) both times I found the Redfin data to be spot on, ie new listings every Thursday the same list I'd get from my agent. This won't beat finding an agent with a listing before it hits the market but the East Bay is hot, if I'm a seller theres no way I'm not putting a house on the open market.
The first house we bought my wife and I found on Redfin (we timed the bottom of the market - by luck - and bought in December of 2010) and had a friend who's an agent in SF just help with the paperwork.
The second time we had a Berkeley based agent (we worked with her to sell our house so she got our "buy" work as well) but again found the house ourselves on Redfin. During our 4 month search our agent never got us a lead that wasn't on redfin. Truth be told if we buy again we may go the Redfin route, we really didn't get a ton of value from our agent on the buy side of our transaction. No way I'd sell a house without an agent however.
The house I ultimately bought was something she found via her network of colleagues before it even was placed on the market.
That's my experience too. My agent notified me of a property that was "probably going to be sold". I liked the description; he came back to me a month later to say it was going to be sold. I took a tour a week later, prepared an offer a week after that, and submitted the offer the week after that- on the same day it was listed .
Suffice to say, I had "some" advance notice on this property! Without the agent, I would have been much too late to the party. I went under contract with the seller 12 hours after submitting my offer, competing against another offer that had been submitted that day.
I think it depends on the market and the competitiveness.
I also bought a house last summer, but in a smaller, much less competitive midwest market. I watched the buyer's agent walk out of the closing meeting with a check for several thousand dollars, despite my wife and I thinking she had been a net negative to the entire process.
I began searching for a house in the East Bay about two years ago, culminating in a purchase in June 2013. The first year or so I was using Redfin, Zillow, and Trulia to track availability, prices and neighborhoods. While I got some good information, it wasn't until I started talking to an agent with about thirty years experience in the region that I actually got good leads. The listings on all of these sites seemed to trail the MLS leads she would get by days to weeks. I made several offers over many months, each one more than the last, each time watching the stock get thinner and bids climb higher. My agent was not only finding good potential properties, but also providing a lot of perspective and emotional support.
The house I ultimately bought was something she found via her network of colleagues before it even was placed on the market. I made a bold offer and gulped at what I was putting on the table, but in retrospect I was fortunate considering what's happening in the bay area housing market right now.
Maybe I'm a dummy, but I cannot envision going through the process without a real human pro providing guidance and leads.