Real Estate with Dallice: Real Estate Listing Alerts – the fun part!
Listing alerts are where it starts to get real. And you thought we’d never get here.
What are real estate listing alerts?
In short, your search criteria is plugged into a website, along with your email address of choice. That site matches listed properties to you and sends you an alert, by email. You may have used a suave (but often flawed) version of listing alerts, having set them up yourself on pretty much any real estate type website. We all have them. Typically you get to choose a price range and input some other data regarding area, number of bedrooms and the like.
The sites get their data from the MLS and their sync frequency and therefore their “up-to-date-ness” is dependent on how they run their site. Indeed… I cannot be held accountable for Zillow sending you homes that are already under contract but I can offer you a far superior listing alert service, then your destiny is in your own hands. We’ll get to the nitty gritty of search criteria in a bit.
Why use real estate listing alerts?
There are two good reasons for making the most of the free listing alert services at your disposal.
- Even before you are ready to pull the trigger on buying, you can be perusing the options. Watch what comes on the market that suits you. How often are their new listings and how many of them meet your needs each week or month? Track interesting properties and take note of how long they last before being snapped up, which ones tend to stick around longer and which ones don’t. You are “learning the market” and when the time is right all this data gathering is gearing you up to make a quicker decision and a more confident decision.
- Listing alerts are going to be crucial in helping you find “the one”. When you are truly ready to buy, you will start to contact your Realtor every time a potential new home is listed. Via my system of listing alerts, you get an email instantly – IE: the minute a new house is listed, the email is sent to you. You are not waiting for a sync up with another website therefore it is the truth when I tell you, no-one is getting the alerts faster than you. No-one could! The next step is to see these listings in person (or virtually, if you have some geographical challenges and you work with me).
Your real estate listing alert choices
Hold on to your hats. This might blow your mind a little.
You are probably used to setting up real estate listing alerts with the following super broad criteria:
- price range
- number of bedrooms
- number of bathrooms
- zip code or city or neighborhood
- maybe square footage too?
Nobody tries on a pair of shoes after simply asking for the size and color! With that strategy, you could end up going to your holiday party in Birkenstocks! Aren’t you interested in buying a pair of shoes that meet the need of the occasion, feel good on your feet and go with the rest of your outfit? Houses are no different.
My listing alerts can be tailored to meet you needs and preferences to a higher degree of specificity.
- Area – can be set according to the school you have in mind, by road boundaries you give me, zip codes, neighborhood names, city or county.
- Lot size (min. max. or range)
- Age of home/Year built
- Parking – attached or detached garage, covered or uncovered parking
- Commute time
- Affordable Housing Program
- Style of home (ranch, tri-level, 2 story, multi-unit and more)
- Disability friendly features such as main floor master and laundry.
- Flood risk
- Zoning
- Water rights
- Horse property
- Views
- What direction the home faces. (If Vastu or Feng Shui matter to you, they matter to me. Or maybe you want southern exposure to de-ice your driveway?)
- Maximum distance from a particular amenity or community feature such as church, trails, your child care.
- Even whether or not the house has a particular type of cooling system!
Yep! I beat Zillow hands-down! In my sleep. Every time
But wait… there’s more:
How often do you really want to get emails from me about new listings?
I would venture to say that in the early stages, when you are getting to know the market, having INSTANT emails (one at a time) may not serve you as well as a daily, weekly or monthly email with all that is new and matchy-matchy to you. How about if I could deliver those daily emails at a time that works for you? Overnight or in a one hour window that you choose? Or weekly, even monthly? You can ask me to tweak the frequency as we go, to suit your schedule.
As you get closer, as you finely tune your search criteria and the number of properties that match are fewer, then instant emails make a world of sense. You’ll see them in a timely manner and be able to book showings with me easily and quickly.
Real estate listing alerts after closing? Why not?!
Everyone thinks that once they have bought a property, they wont want real estate listing alerts. Maybe. Maybe not.
Several of my buyers have requested to maintain those alerts for the foreseeable future. Perhaps it’s to track the market and monitor their investment – wise! It could be because listing alerts have an addictive quality to them. If you are the person who can’t get off Facebook, Etsy, Ebay or Amazon, you may be the person who also just likes shopping online. Or window shopping as the case may be.
As always, thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you and would be delighted to put my services to work for you.