Edina Realty Releases Sold Property Search

On Monday December 4th, Edina Realty released a new search tool which lets consumers search the last two years’ worth of sold properties as reported to the RMLS of Minnesota.

To search for homes that have sold in the last two years, click here.

Beginning today the RMLS is now permitting agents and brokers to display basic information about listings that have sold in the last two years on their web sites.  Up until this point consumers were only permitted to view listings that were currently for sale and consequently did not know what they sold for until the county posted the sales price… in many cases months later.  Now Edina Realty’s new tool pulls in new sold information in almost real-time.

As a real estate agent you may think that I would be concerned about giving up what’s been considered the holy grail of information: comparable sold properties.  Far from it, I’m actually quite excited to see our company and local MLS board progressing forward.

The information that we’re publishing is by and large already published by other sources, most notably the county in which the home resides.  Zillow and others currently use this tax data on their web sites.  The big problems with tax data are that it usually takes several months or more to get the sales information posted and the other information the counties have (beds, baths, garages) is often inaccurate.

Enter the REALTOR.  If the information already publicly exists, why not make it easier for the consumer to get timely & accurate information from us directly?  Some agents look at it as we are giving away the farm; I look at it as a way to increase dialog between buyers, sellers and REALTORS.

Information in today’s society is fluid and many times free, but information is worthless without an ability to analyze and interpret that information.  Just as many people use WebMD to look up their physical ailments and self-diagnose, buyers and sellers now do a basic “diagnosis” of the housing market and get a feel for valuation.  But just like doctors, when it’s time to bring out the scapel, or in this case sell or buy a home, consumers still look to a professional to see that the job is done right.