Is Trulia a great way to find a home?

I must admit before becoming an agent I spent a little bit of time on Trulia.com. I would find the site just by putting in a google search for a home for sale in a certain area and the Trulia website would almost always pull up in my search results so, of course, I would check it out.

It wasn't until recently I began taking over calls for a fellow agent who is leaving the real estate biz behind. She would receive a number of calls from the Trulia website. The problem was the houses they were interested in were showing listed for sale on Trulia but they were cancelled a year to two years ago, meaning they were taken off the market. Due to the timeframe a majority of these homes were short sales. As we all know the prices a year or two ago were much different (lower) than they are today, especially when short sales are involved.

I would contact these individuals back and they were rightfully frustrated that the house hadn't been on the market for months. Unfortunately, it seems Trulia pulls active listings from the MLS but doesn't always update the information, especially for "cancelled" listings. It gives individuals who are looking for homes a false sense of what the prices are in certain areas as well as how many homes are for sale.

Please don't waste too much time on these sites. I totally get why it's interesting to check them out and see what's going on in your area but I wouldn't rely on them too much when purchasing a home. It's always best to contact a real estate agent and have them send you a list of homes currently for sale in the areas you're interested in. It's not going to cost you a penny to do so. The seller of the home you would purchase is typically who pays the Realtor's commission so don't feel like you're saving money by doing your own home search. Even if I wasn't a Realtor I would highly recommend working with one. It only saves you time and money when searching for a home. Both of which we could all use a little more of.