With the market as hot as it has been, buyers are scrambling to find properties. The many new sites popping up sure are great to help speed up the search, or are they? I received a call from a client today, very excited to have found two homes on his own, and I was asked to book appointments. When searching them on MLS, I noticed these two homes had already sold - ONE YEAR AGO! I asked which site the homes were found on, scared that Realtor.ca had missed the updates. I was told it was a site called househunting.ca. I figured it was a fly-by-night start-up site that ran out of funds and couldn't update their information, and thus these listings were left on. I booked a few other appointments for the client and didn't think twice about this second-class property search engine.
About an hour ago, I received an email from another client to get some information on four homes in Aurora, ON. As I was already on the MLS, I popped the MLS numbers into the search and was shocked that all four were sold! I've been watching this area over the last few months, how did these four listings slip past me? How would I explain this to my clients, who have been very patient in waiting for the right home? As I scrolled down to check the sold date, I noticed it was from 2010. The other three were early 2011! I emailed the client right away and told her the bad news, the listings were all sold. I wanted to know where she found these, and for the second time in 5 hours I heard the words HOUSEHUNTING.CA!
I went on to Househunting.ca, and out of curiosity I selected a handful of listings to plug into the MLS. Sure enough, all were sold. These aren't recent sales either. These date back to December 2010, and February, March and April 2011. One example is N2058296 16 Closs Square in Aurora, which shows a date listed as February 1st, 2012 (16 days listed). When you cross reference this listing with the actual MLS, the date listed is March 15, 2011. The home sold on April 8, 2011 AND the new owners have already moved in!! Just to humour the site, I selected NEW LISTINGS from the drop down sort menu. The first home to come up was 50 Petch Crescent in Aurora, listed for $599,000. Househunting.ca shows that this was listed today - February 16, 2012. I inputted the information into the MLS system, and quickly found 50 Petch Crescent. Only problem was that the listing was not a new listing from February 16, 2012. It was actually listed on August 15, 2011. The home sold on September 9, 2011. What makes this worse is that this site is part of Canada.com; major newspapers like the National Post are behind this. What an embarrassment. Sites like this should be taken down. I didn't click on the National Post link at the bottom of the page, however I am curious as to when their breaking news stories would have been from. I'm almost certain that today's Sports Section would have Sidney Crosby on the front page celebrating the Golden Goal - that was just last night right?
It is sad that such sites exist, and even more so that they are frequented by unsuspecting consumers who rely on this misleading information. For CURRENT market information, your best source of information is a full-time Realtor. With so many new sites coming up and claiming to be consumer friendly search engines for listings or for on-line property analysis, the internet is becoming a very scary place for home buyers/sellers. Don't trust novelty websites for information about your most valuable asset, go to a professional. Protect your best interest; call your Realtor.
Asif Khan, ABR
Re/Max Hall of Fame
Google me: Asif Khan ReMax
