I wonder what it was like in the days before the Internet for prospective home buyers- just driving around the neighborhood looking for "For Sale" signs? Then I remember that my parents DID take me house hunting in the Chicago suburbs back in the day, and it was kind of like that, except maybe with a selected realtor who knew what they were doing. Still, I feel like one of the most game-changing websites in the world is Zillow.com, started in 2006 by former Microsoft or Expedia employees, one of those, created the site with the idea of changing the real estate industry. (Side note: Doesn't it seem like most of the best ideas that people use today all spourted right after the Internet came along, and if you were at the right age to capitalize on that, you really made it big? I came along right after that sweet spot I feel like, either that I was too busy playing video games, chess, and doing homework for classes that I didn't really need for my future career while millionaires were being made with just some good ideas). The whole dot-com industry was formed while I was in my teens, and if I was a very precocious 20-year-old college student with foresight for what people would eventually want I could have come up with Youtube, Uber, AirBnB, Instagram, all that good stuff. Alas, I didn't even act quickly enough to get my own namesake email account: Robert.yan@gmail.com was already taken. There's definitely a cost to being late to the party for technology and newest trends: you miss out on the wave.
Zillow is a great example of it pays to be early on something, and one of its many features, price graph, show why that also applies to housing: all of the homes MJ and I are looking at in Southern California show pricing graphs that are essentially a straight line up, from bottom left to top right, almost without exception, and the ones that do have a blip on the radar or some sort of downward price action, I question whether what problems aren't show on the page or that there was an error in the price data. The pictures on Zillow really help visualize the space; it's almost like viewing tourist attractions on Youtube: you don't even have to actually physically be there anymore, you can just see it from your computer. MJ and I are constantly looking through different neighborhoods and seeing what we could afford, what kind of market is in different areas of the city, if there have been any "price cuts," and suprisingly for the first time in a while L.A. has some homes that are cutting prices, whether it's 1.) they priced their home too high in the first place, 2.) the owner needs to sell quickly so they want to garner more interest and bids, or 3.) High mortgage prices causing prospective buyers to be unable to afford expensive homes, or 4.) the affect of the L.A. fires? It definitely puts a little hesitation in your step when considering that fires could strike your home at any time and you lose everything, and it's hard to get fire insurance in L.A. A tough time to be thinking about these matters when there are still families trying to rebuild and get back on their feet, figure out their next plans after losing everything, but the reality is some of these people will need homes too, and the rental market has been drastically altered by the sudden demand in places for fire evacuees.
I've read stories about mystery buyers "putting in offers on houses sight unseen" and always scoffed at the idea, but with Zillow that doesn't seem so preposterous; who knows how much research rich people have done on the market and determined exactly what they want and what's a good price to buy it at. Zillow allows one to see the flooring (a big thing for MJ), how the bathrooms like, how high is the ceiling (low ceilings make me feel really crapped), how generous the windows are to letting in light, what the HOA fees are (huge component if you're buying a townhouse/condo, that could be comparable to rent!) shape of the staircase (MJ expressed admiration at a spiral staircase the other day), exterior feel of the home. Honestly they talk about "curb appeal" a lot and it's probably overrated, but just the way a home looks from the curb can make up a big part of whether I want to visit the place or not, much less live in it and pay up to a million dollars and live there for the foreseeable future. You'll be seeing that place day in and day out, so the appearance is a big selling point for us. Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't judge a home just by its exterior (location is also a huge point), but do judge it by its cover somewhat. If only because other people will judge it like that when you sell the home in the future.
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