Should you automate your search for a new home?
Image of a factory line with robots.
Table of contents
The problem
Finding the right home can be a daunting task.
In a real estate market where home prices are increasing by a double-digit percentage every year, you need to make a move quickly or you risk losing the property to someone else.
In a real estate market where home prices are falling, there are too many homes on the market and you may miss out on the best ones because you won't have time to analyze them all properly.
Regardless of the current real estate market, you could also use a buyer's agent to help you find the perfect home, but you should be prepared to pay a certain amount of commission to get access to this premium service.
What not to do
In 2021 Zillow tried to completely automate the process of home buying, renovating and, ultimately, selling.
It did not go well. Zillow reported billion dollar loss in 2021 in 2021, then blamed its algorithm and some labor and supply shortages for this debacle but, in truth, it may have been just too optimistic regarding the resale value of its homes.
So you must be wondering if Zillow can't do it, can you as a buyer automate your home buying process?
The answer to this question is still a resounding yes.
What to do
You see, Zillow tried to do too much at once and failed in its endeavor.
The company was trying to predict the price of homes in entire cities, each of which is affected by a range of unique factors.
To become a house bargain hunter you need to know where to find value in homes that other people are not seeing.
To do so with speed and accuracy, you will need to automate some parts of the data gathering.
With Zillow Data Exporter you can automate the data extraction from Zillow itself and soon you will be able to receive a daily report of new properties in your mailbox in the form of a spreadsheet attachment.
You won't even need to go on Zillow to get the data you need.
As a prospective buyer, the questions you need to ask yourself are:
- Where can I find a property that I like with the right amenities?
- Where can I find a property that I can actually afford?
By automating the data collection in the form of spreadsheets, you can then apply custom formulas that will give you the insights that you are looking for.
These formulas are entirely customized to your needs and don't rely on some black box algorithm like Zillow used to use to come up with unrealistic and ultimately wrong price estimates.
If you can automate your data gathering around a few key areas and then further refine the results via a custom function, you should in theory be able to narrow down the data to one to two properties each day that match all your requirements.
Then you can do a full assessment of each property, which should help you move quickly on the desired properties.
Give Zillow Data Exporter a try and see how much time and money you'll save each and every day.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter.
Image of a Google Sheet after exporting the data with the Zillow Data Exporter extension.
