I’m a homebuyer — well, sort of. I’ve seriously considering buying a home at least 3 times in the past 2 years (getting pre-approved once). And now with a moderately more “affordable” San Francisco, you guessed it, we are seriously considering jumping back in. Ron, watch out, we might be calling you (again) soon.
Today Trulia launched a tool that might just put me over the edge. Home buyers, sellers, agents, investors and real estate junkies alike can now search for price reductions on Trulia. Instead of talking about it, let me walk you through how to use the new functionality (or at least how I’m using it!).
Step 1: Search for the kind of home that you want on the Trulia homepage.
Step 2: Narrow your search to the specific neighborhoods where you would live
I have my favorite 3 neighborhoods, but heck, for a good deal I might expand my horizons a bit.
Step 3: Now that you have homes that match your search criteria, sort by those with the largest percentage price reduction.
Step 4: Check out price reduced homes that you might actually want to buy! This Cole Valley home was recently reduced $30,000 - but scrolling down on the page you see that this home was first posted on Trulia on 9/26/2008, and has been reduced multiple times since.
We know from search behavior on Trulia.com that house hunters are seeking value in today’s market. If a home has a “price reduction” it may or may not necessarily be “a value”, but this is a tool that users have been demanding, and today — we delivered. I didn’t even mention the ability to set up an email alert if you want to be notified if any homes in your area (or any specific home), has a price reduction…but I’ll save that for another post.
For fun, check out these price reduced homes:
Huntington Beach SFH $500K - $800K
Austin SFH, $200-$500K with 4+ bedrooms
Want to see the official release news? Check it out at: http://www.trulia.com/info/pricereductions
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April 27th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I think your price reductions search is great but would like to caution buyers not to buy a hme based only on how much it was reduced. It could have been overpriced to begin with. Make sure to check the Trulia stats for that ara to make sure it is priced accordingly and as always consult with you real estate agent, they can do a market analysys usually for no additional cost.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Hi David - thanks for your comment and I 100% agree with you. Reductions don’t necessarily mean that you are getting a deal. In fact, it might signal that the seller is unwilling to accept that their home was (and may still be) mispriced!