Need auto search for real estate "solds"

Factual Questions
1

I am looking for a way to set up an automatic notification for real estate properties sold in a particular area (a particular street list or radius from a point would be even better). It would generate an email within a short time (24 hrs or more) whenever a property was entered as sold in local MLS databases or in County records.

Parameters should be configurable (names of parties to notify, geographic areas, etc.) and I don’t mind paying for this service if it isn’t too expensive.

For those of you who know I am a Realtor and are wondering why I need this, it’s because the MLS that I pay over a thousand dollars a year for has refused to make this available to my customers, although auto searches for new listings and price changes can be done and I can search myself at anytime.

Also, the County’s Real Property Listing Dept. has no way of performing this task, as their computer functions work approximately pre-1980s style and they have no plans to upgrade.

Anyone know of a way to do this?

2

How quickly does Zillow update their “recently sold” listings? You can define a geographic area, housing type, size, price, etc. and have it give you updates once something hits those criteria.

3

I haven’t checked recently or in detail, but Zillow, Trulia, and similar sites have traditionally lagged behind the market. Personally, I think it is deliberate, not accidental. Their philosophy is “the more listings we can serve up, the better, even if many are bogus.” I have had calls from buyers, sometimes very confused buyers, who see a property on one of those sites that they did not know was on the market, but was presented to them, and it hadn’t been listed for many months. Sometimes sold properties are listed for sale months later.

So Zillow might be a possibility, but not a reliable source, unless things change. And I’m not sure you can tag “solds”, as they are targeting buyers, and those wouldn’t be of interest (they are if you want to check prices).

4

Out of curiosity as an agent why would you want your buyers or sellers auto-notified of local sold MLS listings? Wouldn’t you collecting and delivering that to them personally enhance their desire to work with you vs simply setting up an email pump?

On re-reading if you are saying your MLS does not allow YOU to do this then there’s serious issue with your MLS capabilities. All MLS’ I have ever seen can do this re filtering solds in specific geographic areas.

5

I am allowed to auto-notify anyone by email for 1. New listings, 2. Price changes, 3. Misc. changes, or 4. Back on market. That’s all. Supposedly the reason for that is exactly what you said, to enhance their desire to work with me.

This MLS uses a Navica engine, and I checked with their tech support about this. They said not allowing solds for auto notification was by design, so potential clients would contact agents.

So these two philosophies are at odds, I think. Anything I can feed to a potential client is better coming from me than from some other source. Knowing about sold properties is valuable information for all parties and it is not kept secret. In fact, I am obligated by ethics to inform buyers of solds if requested.

Note that there are no restrictions in this MLS system as to searching for solds (or hundreds of other criteria) and emailing the results to anyone. It is only the auto search that has this limitation.

One person I would like to put on the auto-sold email list runs a Welcome Wagon business. She wants to know when new owners will be moving in the area so she can take them a greeting package. And she might be pleasantly disposed towards me should she need real estate services.

Another party may sell in the future. He wants to keep on top of prices for good reason.

For that matter, I would like to be emailed about solds in certain areas as well. Although I check the hotlist at least once daily, which shows everything that has happened in the last 24 hrs, I also get instant emails for certain areas for new listings and price changes, which can be very useful. I just can’t get it for solds.

I will be mentioning this to our board, who can make Navica change their software and policies, but it might cost and many agents are Luddites with computers and might not want any change. I am reminded of a conversation with one of the most successful agents in my area, about 16 years ago, when I suggested to him that he put listing detail on his website (all he had then was minimal; didn’t include prices, for example). His response was one of horror. “We can’t do that! Then buyers wouldn’t have to come to us!”

My, how things can change.

6

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7

I don’t use the local MLS that much as my of our commercial listings are in other national and regional commercial specific databases. Changing MLS features on some system is huge PITA so you may get some pushback. I can see why you would like it in your scenario, but I have been selling real estate for over 25 years and have never had a client request sold data be pushed to them continuously, I have always done the search then emailed it if it was necessary.

Residential may be different, but it would seem to be a very niche feature.

8

I have at least several hundred (haven’t counted) auto searches running. Every recipient of one is a potential customer, and it costs me nothing to add an auto search. I consider it a valuable tool. Keeping people informed, if they want to be, is important social engineering.

Sometimes I get a call from a prospective buyer or seller who says, “You just sent me a listing and…” and it takes me a minute to realize that it was the auto-search that sent it, not me. Yet it builds the prospect list.

I have two people right now who could benefit from a sold auto-search, and both could be future customers. But I can’t set them up for it, and will have to do it manually. And if I do it manually, it is out of date tomorrow. Things move too fast now for that to be sufficient.

9

Just to elaborate, I have a situation right now where a buyer wants to make an offer on a property, but needs critical information on an upcoming sale of the adjacent property, like the sale price. I can’t set him up, or me either, to get an auto email when the sale happens and is entered. I can run a search manually, but I will have to do it every hour for several days to avoid missing the transaction. Then I have to inform the buyer. Very silly in this day of Internet instant-ness.

But I can run an hourly auto search on new listings. No use in this case.