Finding Saratoga Real Estate Hot Spots with RPR

REALTORS® are the center of real estate transactions and I predict will remain so, because of four factors:

Access to a new propietary program called REALTORS® Property Resource (RPR),
REALTORS® extensive market knowledge,
Marketing expertise and
Negotiating skills.

Not all licensed real estate agents are REALTORS® (members of the National Association of REALTORS®) so this enhanced information and analytical tools will not be available to all real estate agents. Starting this summer, NAR program will begin to roll out RPR only to their REALTOR® members and subscriber clients such as banks.

I have been selected as one of 50 local beta testers, so will start using this great new REALTOR® program even sooner. RPR will start beta testing in April, 2010 in 12 MLS’s nationwide, including our local Santa Clara County MLS Listings.com, Inc. RPR will be rolled out in the nation over 2 years with regular 6 week enhancements.

There are over 140 million distinct parcels of real estate (lots, houses, condos, etc.) in the United States. Currently, 93% of publicly available, real estate parcel information (excluding MLS data) is currently available in cyberspace through various channels.

So what so new and exciting? Here’s a few highlights:

RVM’s – Automated Valuation Models (AVM’s) are currently used by banks and internet companies such as Zillow, but AVM’s are notoriously inaccurate. One of the most significant changes that RPR will bring is to add REALTORS® back into the equation - hence, the REALTOR® Valuation Model (RVM). Refined REALTOR® knowledge is added to a valuation algorythm which is based on public information. RVM will combine detailed MLS information with new tools that allow Realtors to make appropriate quantitative adjustments for factors such as market conditions, known discrepancies with public information, known added value (such as remodeling) not shown on public information plus judgment about which comps to use.
Completeness and Accuracy – RPR will provide the most complete and most accurate information available for each parcel of real estate (not just public data or the MLS)! REALTORS®s will have access to this information only within their MLS area (not available unless the real estate agent is a member of that local MLS) for their primary zip code and three other zip codes.
Heat maps – These show a variety of new information such as housing density, psycho-graphic information (purchasing patterns, political affiliations, etc. plus demographics) by zip codes and neighborhoods. I will have exciting new maps and reports to show you Saratoga’s real estate hot spots!
Neighborhood Statistics & Maps – I will now have the ability to sort and analyze extensive data by neighborhoods (as defined by closed polygons I create)!
Historic trends – The example shown above illustrates trends for a specific property over a 10 year period. It will also show comparisons between the property, their zip code, city and state trend. See the example shown above.
Q-Score - this is a sort of popularity index of all internet views of the information throughout all of cyberspace.
Customizable Analytics – Comparison of public records with listing data and the ability to make adjustment for other known discrepancies. No more misleading numbers churned out of a black box by third party vendors