Insider dope: Zillow and Trulia may merge

Zillow and Trulia are having discussions about merging.  What does that mean to Los Angeles-area home buyers and sellers?  It will make home searches easier.  Rather than having two portals to view, you'll now have one.  No more cross-checking, or getting the same listing from separate sources.  And by the way, the sales info on all of the megasites comes from, yes, the local multiple listing service.  Not the Zestimates or tax records, of course, but the pictures, descriptions, showing info, amenities, etc. -- we Realtors create that and add that to our local multiple listing services.

Adult classifieds from Realtor.com?

You all know Realtor.com, the first listing megasite? It has been a little eclipsed by Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, etc. but it's still a place that serious buyers go to search for properties and contact listing agents.  I just got this contact:

To: Judy Graff

From: laproductionss@aol.com

First Name: robin

Last Name: y

Subject: Lead from a REALTOR.com website consumer about your other listings

Message:

Just saw your pic. You are beautiful.

I'm an investor looking for a beautiful agent to work with and have fun on the 

side.

Interested?

Um, no, Robin Y and you need to get your eyes checked.  Or I need to get a more recent picture.  Realtors out there, feel free to contact Robin if you're interested, but don't forget to give me a referral fee!

Why you trust the internet for homes for sale info

I entered a listing -- the new one below at 2101 N. Rose in Burbank -- into the Combined Los Angeles Westside multiple listing service this a.m.  It is supposed to go to the other area multiple listing services right away (there are about three in So. Cal. and different Realtors use different ones for various reasons).

Four hours later, the listing is still not coming up on the other mls's.  But it's on Redfin!  And probably Zillow, Trulia, etc.  No wonder clients want to search for properties themselves -- they're getting info faster from the internet than from the Realtor community. (Yes, I've called the other two mls's to let them know.)

New, noteworthy site

So much for privacy. I just discovered Blockshopper.com, courtesy of LALand. Yes, you can now easily search by block and learn what your neighbors paid for their homes. It appears that the site sources the L.A. County tax assessor's data, although some data for certain properties is missing -- like what we originally paid for our house, for some reason. It's a cool site, though, and fills in some Redfin/Zillow gaps.

Search the MLS BY MAP from my site

I've just added a map search feature to my real estate site at http://www.judygraff.com/. This offers many of the same features as mega-sites Trulia, Property Shark, Redfin and Zillow. To access:

• Visit the home page of my site at http://www.judygraff.com/. Click on the "select page" box at the top right-hand corner for a drop-down menu.


• Scroll down to MLS Map Search and click. You'll be taken to a new page.


• Click on the link and have fun searching.

Of course, you can still conduct a standard property search from my site, as well. Just click on the "mls search" button at the left on the home page.