Why aren’t all homes for sale on all websites?

There could be a number of reasons.

In Maryland, as of right now, our listing agreements (the documents to list a home for sale) have locations for the seller to initial determining where on the internet the house can appear.

One of the questions is whether the seller would allow the house listing be located on a site that has automated estimate of the “market value” of the home, also known as home price valuations (sites such as Zillow.) If the seller does not agree and initial the ability to have the house on a site that has automated valuations, then that house, which would be actively for sale, would not show up on a site like Zillow.

Another area where the seller has to make a decision regarding what sites in which the house may appear is whether the house would be allowed to be shown on a site where unedited comments may be posted. There are a number of websites where people may write unedited comments about the house – Redfin being one of them.

Should the seller not agree to or initial that line, then the house, again actively for sale, would not be allowed to appear on sites such as Redfin or FranklyMLS.

There are also a few brokerages that have removed the rights to all of their listings entirely from certain websites. Due to the changing nature of these agreements, I won’t list the sites or the companies.

BUT, what this means, is that there could be a number of homes that could be what you are looking for that aren’t on a website you’ve been searching!

So, what should you do? Contact a local real estate professional to consult with them, and you may be able to get an MLS search set up for you, so you can have real-time access to homes for sale. For Towson homes for sale, or Baltimore homes for sale, contact me. I’d love to help!