Steven Sebasto’s Blog

As a real estate professional, I know that many consumers use Realtor.com as their search vehicle for information on homes that are currently for sale.  I would like to find out from those consumers, and the agents they work with, what changes they would recommend for Realtor.com to make it a better search tool.

I will be glad to get the list started.  I have one big frustration with Realtor.com.  They use a self determined pricing structure set up for their searches.  This gets to be pretty frustrating when you are searching for a home in a specific price range.  If I have a buyer who is looking for a home in the $535,000 to $545,000 range, they have to pull up all listings that are between $500,000 and $550,000.  Because of most Multiple Listing Service (MLS) guidelines, they can only pull 50 listings at a time.  Many times the upper priced homes for that bracket are not even getting pulled in the search.

I would like to see Realtor.com let the user select the price ranges that they want to search in.

Let me hear your thoughts.  What changes would you like to see on Realtor.com.

Thanks,

Steve Sebasto

If you have been reading or watching any news lately, you have heard the term “short sale”.  A “short sale” is when someone sells their home and the bank/mortgage company agree to accept less of a payoff that what is actually owed.  Many banks are doing short sales right now to avoid having many of their properties go through foreclosure.

A short sale is another option for a homeowner that must sell and is in over their head.  Currently, it does not have as adverse an effect on your credit as a foreclosure would.  Your likelyhood of being able to buy another home soon after going through a short sale is much greater than going through a foreclosure or bankruptcy.

There are some things to look out for though.  Usually the bank or mortgage company will file a 1099a showing the difference between the true payoff, and the amount they settled on, as income to the homeowner. 

With today’s tight housing market, short sales are an option to keep in mind when needing to sell a home that has little or no equity.

Welcome to Steven Sebasto’s Blog! This blog will provide you with valuable information, tips, and general insight into the real estate market in Prairie Village.