Section 8 housing?
You evidently applied for a section 8 voucher that you can take with you and use it wherever landlords will allow you to. Nobody can tell you how long the waiting list is because it can change daily. It depends on many different things. I don't think you will have a problem with the disability thing. I think you are saying that you are not disabled, but since you collect SSI for your daughter, she is disabled? And you didn't mark the box for her? If I am right, you can correct it. Or if they catch it, they will call you and ask about it. This won't hold you up on the waiting list. Someone should be calling you for an interview if you have not already had one. There are many papers to sign. You can call them too. Call and ask if they received your application and ask when you will know if you are accepted. Then ask them when you may call again to check on the progress of your application. Keep notes documenting the dates you called and what the conversations consisted of. Never hurts to have documentation. Please be sure to get the name of every person you talk to.
What will Zillow look like in a year without the ListHub (MLS feed)?
tl dr; It depends on how many MLS's they sign up in the next year.Lenore Wilkas is correct in that Zillow is busy signing up the MLS's to have them send the data to Zillow directly. For the MLS's that do this, the data will likely be a lot more accurate than previously through ListHub, simply for the fact that it's coming directly from the MLS's in real-time (without a middleman).However, for the MLS's that don't agree to send their data to Zillow, there will likely be huge inaccuracies in the data for those regions of the country, because Zillow will be forced to rely on public records data or feeds that come directly from brokers (which is tough to get unless the broker agrees to send it over).It's ultimately tough to say how this will make Zillow look like in a year. If they're able to sign up over 95% of the largest MLS's, then I think it won't make much difference compared to now. And as Lenore indicated, if anything, Zillow will be more accurate because they're getting the feed directly from the MLS's themselves. However, if they haven't gotten at least 95% of the major MLS's to give them their data, then I think it's going to be problematic and they're going to have to implement a new strategy to get the remaining data.
What is the best to use for a rental property search - Zillow, Redfin or Trulia? Why?
Hello Abdullah. I think the answer to your question varies greatly depending on where you are looking to rent. There are really two answers:If you’d like to just use online outlets, then use all of them. You’d want to do this not just to increase your scope, but to verify listings against other sources as well. Big names like Trulia and Zillow pull their data from multiple sources AND allow people to manually add information. I can tell you that real estate agents are not above adding bait and switch listings just to get you to call. At the same time, the speed with which these sites pull their data from sources such as an MLS feed is not always as quickly as a given market works. In Boston, we find that these sites are more of a roadblock than anything else for our clients. They either see out of date data or simply false data and it makes their rental search a headache.While these online sources may be great in smaller markets, they do not have the entire inventory in a larger rental market. In Boston, we don’t bother to post everything to Zillow or Trulia. The large majority of the time, we never put rentals on MLS either. In order to get access to everything on the rental market (and usually the really good stuff), you’d want to talk with a few different, local real estate agencies. They’ll be able to show you far more than you might ever see on the aggregating sites. For instance, the majority of exclusive listings my company handles get rented “in house”. This means that we never list them on a source that would feed them to Zillow or Trulia. A lot of successful agencies do the same. It would be in your best interest to call a few different brokers so you can get listings straight from the source.Best of luck!
Do you find Zillow useful for researching home value prices and determining if you should get your house reappraised?
In my opinion, never use the “Zestimate” given through Zillow for your home. They are wildly inaccurate at times. Market conditions are constantly changing and some appraisers are always working to “correct” the market it seems.Best practice is to reach out to a trusted real estate agent in your area and have a detailed CMA (comparative market analysis) completed on your home. It is a highly detailed analysis that should price position your home accurately if done correctly. It is also a free service most agents can provide.you can always hire the services of a licensed appraiser, but this will cost several hundred dollars at best. A solid CMA will get you the answers you need.hope this helps! :)
Why are the listings on Zillow and Realtor different?
You've already gotten a bunch of great answers here as towhy the data can be different, but I'll add some color as a Zillow employee. As you’ve already learned Realtor.com dataalmost exclusively comes from the local MLS, so the listing has to be in thatsystem to appear on the site. Zillowgets a large percentage of our data this way too, but we also accept data fromhundreds of other data sources. Most ofthese other sources are Agent, Broker or Real Estate Franchise directfeeds. Usually these agents areinputting into the MLS, but sometimes they have their reasons why they don’t,and these direct feeds allow for the listing to still be advertised. We also take feeds from services that real estate agents useto syndicate their data across the web. Thisis helpful to agents whose MLSs and Brokers don’t participate in syndication orwho aren’t members of their MLSs. However, these services can require more manual management of thelisting data, which is where errs can occasionally happen. The data source is always noted at the bottomof every property detail page for the convenience of the agent and the viewer,so they know where the data is coming from and they can follow up if they spotanything inaccurate. In addition to this type of agent-sponsored listing, Zillow alsoworks with companies and individuals who represent other types of listing data:For Sale By Owner, foreclosure and pre foreclosure, new construction (builders),and rentals from both large communities and individual landlords. It is free for anyone (listing agent orhomeowner) to post to Zillow through our sister company Postlets.com. Lastly, we have a unique category of listings called Make MeMove – where the owner has not officially put their home on the market yet, butis publically stating the amount that it would take for them to turn the houseover to a new buyer. Some of these homeowners are more motivated than others, and you can see that in the prices theyare publishing. Hope this helps explains why listing data may vary from cityto city. Zillow also has data on about100 million homes online, with this data mostly coming to us via publicrecords. When we learn of a home orrental going on the market, we do our best to mash this public data togetherwith the listing data to give the viewer the most comprehensive view of the home as possible.
Do the real estate "zestimates" on Zillow tend to be close to the actual market value of a home?
Thanks for the A2A. You ask about "market value", specifically. I'll comment on Zestimate accuracy relative to actual sale(sold) prices, which many would agree is the truest indicator of "market value" at a given point in time.In a nutshell, the Zestimate is an estimate and is not intended to replace an appraisal or CMA performed by a competent, experienced professional. At Zillow we absolutely appreciate the value of both and think they have a valuable place in the "research toolkit" of someone looking to buy or sell a home -- please, get 'em if you can! Knowledge is Power, and Power is vital when we're talking about something as significant as buying or selling a home.I'll copy-paste what we say about this topic of Zestimate Accuracy on our site:"The Zestimate's accuracy depends on location and availability of data in an area. Some counties have deeply detailed information on homes such as number of bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage and others do not. The more data available, the more accurate the Zestimate.""Nationally, the Zestimate has a median error rate of 7.9%, which means half of the Zestimates in an area are closer than the error percentage and half are farther off. For example, in Seattle, Zestimates for half of the homes are within 6.6% of the selling price, and half are off by more than 6.6%."At Zillow we try to be very transparent about the accuracy of our Zestimates. In fact, we are the only large-scale provider of such estimates who regularly updates and publishes -- free and for all to see -- Zestimate accuracy stats for all states, large metro areas, and counties in the country. You can always find this data here. Also note the link by which you can download an Excel spreadsheet of even more data to analyze in your own manner:Zestimate Accuracy Datahttp://www.zillow.com/zestimate/...Find Your Home's ZestimateHow Much is My Home Worth? Check Your Zestimate - ZillowGeneral FAQ on ZestimatesWhat is a Zestimate? Zillow's Home Value Forecast | ZillowThe more info the better! We and millions of users each month obviously think our Zestimates are useful. That said, they're incomplete on their own -- like any single piece of data is, really -- and you should by all means supplement with as much good insight as you can.I've worked at Zillow for over six years and I certainly do, myself ; )
How long does it take you to create a site like ZILLOW? (http://www.zillow.com/)
Hey there,Many thanks - this question requires a bit of rational thinking and logics, which I am really into.How to Make a Real Estate App Like Zillow and Trulia - Mind Studios - that’s my research of material on the topic.The thing is, it might really depend on many factors - including the size, platforms covered, amount of features and the time you have for your application development process.Once you get to think about how to make an app like zillow or any other commercial real estate app, there are a few things to deal with in advance - in order to be on your toes once the development is all set.1. Huge Database.And with this in mind, let me just emphasize - it has to be bigger than ever. Imagine how many points have to be stored in there: all the properties, their amenities, features and locations, routes and maps for a GEO-location function, all the addresses of the nearby institutes, schools and shops.On the server’s side various tech has to be implemented as well, including the Postgress, PostGIS SQL databases, Elasticsearch for a full-text search and Marionette Backbone Framework.2. Various stack of tech.For the client’s app features (if we take the iOS version) to be implemented into mobile app for real estate agents include different technologies, peculiarly:MapKit for the maps integrationCoreLocation - for tracking user’s geo-location and setting a point on the mapApple Push Notifications Service (APNS) - for the push notifications to hit on the deviceCoreData or Realm - to have a list of saved houses and other propertiesFacebook SDK - to enable sign in and sharing via FacebookGoogle sign in - for having an additional Google+ sign in optionWHy don’t you read more on our blog, in our article How to Make a Real Estate App Like Zillow and Trulia - Mind Studios
How do you find out what land is selling for in a certian area?
We are going to sell our land and house with out going through a realtor. We are going to get an appraisal, but i would also like to know what other properties are going for in our area, not homes, just land. Where would i start looking?