Best Hill Country Homes Search? Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com or IDX
Let's say that you have decided that you are ready for a new home in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. (or any other area in the nation) So, you decide to get online and start searching for the home of your dreams! You have heard that the nationwide listing sites like Realtor.com or Zillow is a good place to search. As you start looking, you find that these sites have as many as 3 or 4 million listings! Sounds great doesn't it?
But, there is one question that you should consider. Do you want to be able to view all of the available homes on the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS} or just part of them? You see, these national sites don't usually have all of the homes listed on the MLS. Sometimes they have most of them, but I've seen stats that show some of them to have less than 40% of the listings in a certain area.
The only database that has every home listed by local real estate companies is the MLS. However, unless you are a Realtor, you can't access the MLS. So, how can a home searcher find the most available listings in the area?
All you do is find a real estate agent's website that has an IDX feed on his website. IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange, which means it is a data feed directly from the MLS. All listings entered into the MLS are automatically fed to the website unless the agent that enters it into the MLS excludes it from the IDX.(why they would exclude it, I don't know - the more visible a property is, the better chance it will sell)
If you would like to see how an IDX works, feel free to Search Hill Country Homes on our website. If you find something you are interested in give us a call at 830-613-8812 or email us. We can help you with any of the homes you find on the IDX feed.
www.besthillcountryhomesearch.com