According to the National Association of Realtors 42 percent of last year’s homebuyers started their search online. If they happened to land on a national site like Trulia, or Zillow, I have a word of advice, “Buyer beware.”

When it comes to looking at real estate listings in Lake Oswego and the Portland metro area, it’s best to “Search local,” which is why the Hasson Company has refined our real estate search tools and why you should check them out on my website when you’re in the market.

1. Property search information is updated every 15 minutes. In a hot market, timing can be everything and so it’s reassuring to know you are getting up-to-date listings at www.kevincostello.hasson.com to give you that competitive edge. I’ve had houses sell in a day so if you aren’t getting your info in real-time, you could be out of luck.

2. You can neighborhood shop on the Hasson Company platform. Have several neighborhoods you are considering? Want to hone in on the neighborhoods you can afford? When you do a property search on my website you can set your preferences to include the neighborhoods you’re most interested in. It’s a hyper-local approach you can’t always find on the national aggregates.

3. Get a better sense of value. Click on the “Market Trends” tab on my website, and you’ll be taken to a page that gives you hyper-local information once again on over 265 neighborhoods located in the Portland metro area, Southwest Washington and Central Oregon. Narrow your search to just the neighborhoods you are interested in, and know you are getting stats that are updated every month. For example, in the month of April, there were 35 homes for sale in the Palisades neighborhood in Lake Oswego. Of those that sold, the average sales price was $797,208 which represented 96.9 percent of the asking price, taking an average of 23 days to sell.

4. Take advantage of an interactivity that facilitates the home search process. My home search system syncs with my mobile app so you can be driving by a listing, favorite it, and I’ll get notified. While driving around, you’ll be able to see on your phone, the available listings in the area, and keep me posted as to what you’re interested in seeing. This type of connection keeps me plugged in as your Realtor to what it is you’re looking for in your dream home, making it that much easier to find you the perfect match!

5. Enjoy a personal connection with a professional with hands-on market knowledge. When visiting a new city, don’t you really want to know where the locals go to find the best restaurants, night life, places to go? That same local approach applies to real estate.

Case in point: I recently listed a house on Delenka Lane in Lake Oswego at $750,000. It sold for $742,000. The Zillow Zestimate was $845,426. Another home on one of the Lake Oswego canals sold for $980,000 despite the fact the Zestimate was $736,513. The variances between true market value and these estimated values put out by national firms can be even greater, sometimes as much as 60 percent.

That leads to false expectations both in the eyes of the seller as well as the buyer which doesn’t serve anyone well. People in the home buying market are better served by meeting with a professional Realtor with hands-on experience in their local area to determine a home’s true value. Pulling it off the Internet may be easy but it’s not always accurate and can set a buyer as well as a seller up for a frustrating experience because they’re armed with misinformation.

My 25 plus years experience in selling homes in Lake Oswego and the Portland metro area is just a click or phone call away when using my property search platform. Check it out at www.kevincostello.hasson.com. I hope I can help you the next time you’re in the market to move on.