We get questions from time to time about some supposedly ‘quirks’ in the Metrolist home search system. Here are the most common:
First Question: I type in say “Greenwood Village” homes in the search form and a home in the search results or map returns that is in another city, like Castle Rock.
First answer: The listing agent on the property put the sub area or the subdivision in to attract more attention to the home. Usually you see this in adjacent cities or subdivisions like Cherry Hills and Greenwood Village. Recently I noticed a home in Greenwood Village that had the sub area as “Cherry Hills Area.”
Second answer: If it is a map position, way out of place (most common), the map locations are pulled by Metrolist from their respective county offices. If the county has entered the the latitude and longitude of the deed incorrectly, then this wrong location position will happen. I saw a home in Littleton that was ‘placed’ in Missouri a while back! If you place the mouse pointer on the home, it will still give you all the details of the home.
Second Questions: I type in a condo or loft name like “Wynkoop Lofts” and there is only one little ‘blue house’ image on the map, even though it says five units available.
Answer: This is one building with multiple units available.
Third Question: This is the most common question – Why are there no photos for a property?
Answer: This is a function of the listing agent who has not taken or had photos taken to put them up when he or she put the listing in Metrolist. If our team are in a hurry and short of time, we will shoot at least two or three photos on the run to put up with the listing and then put up at least 15 to 25 good ones shortly afterwards. Many studies have shown that prospective buyers will not even look at a property with no photos.
Fourth Question: Why don’t I get get any or more than a few homes returned in a home search, when I know there are a lot of homes available in this city or area?
Answer: Try making the searches less specific. When we Realtors are searching for homes for clients with certain parameters, we will start with less than what is our ideal. For example, if it is imperative that a home has a main floor master, I will search on all homes with a main floor master in an area, instead of just a Ranch style home. Many times we have helped a buyer purchase a two story home with a main floor master that was gorgeous, in a favorite area or neighborhood and they loved it!
Fifth Question (added 4/26/12): How come there are so few, relatively speaking, Green/Energy Efficient/Solar homes in an area the size of Metro Denver, with so much sunshine ?
Answer: There are a lot more, but some ‘old line’ real estate agents and home owners don’t think about putting the info in the listing data as a positive selling point. I once saw a nice home with solar collectors on the roof, stopped and pulled an info flyer, and there was no mention of the solar panels you could see from the street! This view is rapidly changing due to various ‘Green’ initiatives in Colorado.
Note: Send us questions you have about home searches and we will add to them here!
