Net Savvy Buyers Take Advantage of Foreclosure Listings
April 27th, 2009 by 
Joseph Smith
Internet-savvy Americans, mostly young and new couples, have been taking advantage of new online search tools to look for their dream house through online foreclosure homes listing and home selling web sites.
They gather data from the foreclosure listings, including photos, neighborhood statistics, demographics and prices, using search tools offered by the web sites. Many of them make spreadsheets and monitor price movements by setting bookmarks and alerts.
According to Zillow, visits to its web site last month soared by 71 percent over visits in March last year. Amy Bohutinsky, spokesperson for Zillow, said the visitors are monitoring sales and foreclosure listings near the areas where they are residing. She also said that younger first-time homebuyers and investors tend to research a lot before buying.
Trulia.com has added another tool to its web site to attract more buyers – a tool that would help home buyers to find only houses that have had their prices reduced. Trulia offers tables that monitor foreclosure listings and price movements in various communities.
Couple Kevin and Laura Wolfe, in their 20s, are examples of relatively young couples using everything what the Internet has to offer in their search for their home. Among the web sites they have used are Redfin.com, Long & Foster, Zillow and Washington Post and other home selling sites. They can even quickly describe which site has the better graphic interface, the more updated foreclosure listings and the more targeted search tools.
In their rented home in Fairfax County, they have been monitoring home prices on online foreclosure listings for about 3 years and they hope to finally buy their dream home this spring. They said they have gone to about 60 open houses, visited about 15 homes and have submitted bids on 5 houses. The first four bids failed because either their bid was too low or the seller refused to do needed repairs.
Redfin agent Fernando Ferrufino said the Redfin web site attracts buyers who like to control as much of the home selection and buying process as possible. They want to assure themselves they are getting the best price.
Phipps Realty agent Matt Phipps said he understands the can-do and skeptical attitude of young buyers as he is also only in his 20s. He said young buyers do not like aggressive marketing because they like to look at the foreclosure listings and numbers themselves and then compare, analyze and decide.
