Zillow Adds Pre-Market Inventory to Home Search - What's All the Fuss About?

Zillow is very happy with a new concept that they implemented in their search criteria today. They are excited to introduce pre-market inventory to the home search. 

Home buyers can now go to Zillow to search for pre-foreclosures and foreclosed properties. These are homes not yet listed for sale and not available on any MLS or other real estate sites. However, they are available on my site at PrudentialGeorgia.com. We have been offering these types of searches for the past few years using RealtyTrac data for free to those searching under the Foreclosure Tab of the Property Search screen. 

Getting back to Zillow, they state, "by giving buyers the ability to find information on homes that are about to come on to the market – inventory that typically only savvy investors know how to find – Zillow opens up more choice and opportunities to help buyers find the right home."  

This sounds nice, but what their site shows, and what our site will show are properties that are not available for sale! These are pre-foreclosures, many times also called short sales, that even though they are being advertised in the newspapers for impending foreclosure sale dates are going to have their sale dates postponed for short sale or other reasons and never make it to bank inventory much less the auction block.  Other properties, the really quality homes and best locations get taken into bank inventory for resale. Banks however have a certain process of selling their inventory. It is through MLS!  

I have had cash buyers over the years that said to me, "please call the bank and tell them we are cash buyers, want a specific property, and can close in two weeks," and when doing this the banker on the other end of the phone tells me "it will be available when we relist in MLS with a real estate broker."  I have on more than one occasion fought this response with "you don't understand, my client will pay cash today," and the banker once again tell me that they have not evicted the previous owner, done repairs, inspections, appraisals, and cannot sell the newly acquired piece of inventory until it goes through a process and is relisted for sale through a real estate company in MLS.  

That is the reality.  Banks have their process for reselling these homes they acquire.  They are not going to sell one of "their" assets any easier than you or I would. They will at the least get an appraisal to determine what price they should attempt to sell for! Many will sell foreclosed inventory themselves and many will simply and immediately convey properites to Fannie, Freddie, or HUD and not worry about it! Until they know what they are going to do with these pre-market inventory, as Zillow puts it, it "might not be destined to be inventory for some time to come." Or it may not be listing inventory for some months down the road.

In all the foreclosure sales I have had a hand in over the past few years, never has anyone been able to take "pre-foreclosue" data on a property and have it become their dream home. Why? Because the bank does not own the property yet and because the process to get it out and marketed on the whole is long.  It's like me trying to by the iPhone 5 before it was produced! There is nothing to buy! It is a concept.  My point is that pre-market inventory is just that too, a concept. 

I have not touched on it in this post, but note here that buying at auction if you have an opportunity and the bank doesn't simply grab a favored property back into inventory or the current owner doesn't pay the mortgage back up again putting off the foreclosue sale, can have some risks.

To see the pre-market inventory in Dacula, select foreclosed and pre-foreclosure when you start your home search, and unlike Zillow, you don't need to sign in or register to get the full details on these properties.

For more information on Dacula neighborhoods feel free to call Hank Bailey at (678) 252-9257, email to hankbailey@prudentialgeorgia.com or follow @PrudentialGARE on twitter.

Click here to view Dacula neighborhoods and MLS listings in each, and visit my new website www.hankbailey.prudentialgeorgia.com to create an advanced MLS search including foreclosures, short sales, new construction, and by schools! 

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