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I Want That House

Get the actual house you want!
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Everyone has a dream house they would love to own someday. The problem is that many of these homes are the type that don't sell very often and when they do they sell quick.

If you are lucky the house in question is nearby and you pass by often and have a chance to see the sign if it does go on the market.

I propose a service that would monitor multiple listing service, Realtor websites and newspaper advertising and would compare those listing to your "dream home list". You provide the city, state, town, street and address as well as a basic description of the home and property. The service then monitors all listings looking to see if your special home comes on the market and notifies you right away if it does.

NOTE: This isn't just a list of certain "types" or "styles" of houses or even of houses of a particular configuration. This is for a particular exact house/property that you want to watch for like; 31 Redbird lane in Tuscaloosa, the one with the tire swing and mulberry trees where your childhood sweetheart and you first met.

Never again will you discover that your dream home sold to someone else because you never knew it was on the market in the first place.

jhomrighaus, Feb 18 2008

Fish 4 Homes http://www.fish4.co.uk/iad/homes
They also do jobs and cars [angel, Feb 18 2008]

Sorry, it's not available http://www.google.c...rights=&safe=images
[normzone, Feb 19 2008]

[link]






       Everything has a price so everything is for sale. You might be surprised if you just walked up to the house and made an offer.   

       Having said that, floorplans and elevations aren't of such great diversity that - if you can quantify what you like about a house - a real estate agent can probably find you one just like it that *is* for sale. Or arrange to help you build one.
phoenix, Feb 18 2008
  

       I was a guinea pig for a Real Estate program which did exactly this. Not sure if it is being widely used yet. In fact It could not turn up enough choices for me that met my very specific requirements so I backed out of the project after 2 months. Perhaps a year of looking would have turned up something.
dentworth, Feb 18 2008
  

       This isn't just a list of certain "types" or "styles" of houses or even of houses of a particular configuration. This is for a particular exact house/property that you want to watch for, like 31 redbird lane in Tuscaloosa, the one with the tire swing and mulberry trees where your childhood sweetheart and you first met, or the ancestral family home that you wish to bring back into the family.
jhomrighaus, Feb 18 2008
  

       The ancestral family is BACK in the family, thankyewverymuch. 130 acres of icy Minnesota tundra, brrrr.
elhigh, Feb 18 2008
  

       // 130 acres of icy Minnesota tundra// you're descended from mammoths??
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 18 2008
  

       edited to clarify the the fact that this is for particular properties and not a general category or spec search.
jhomrighaus, Feb 18 2008
  

       "edited to clarify the the fact that this is for particular properties and not a general category or spec search."
  

       Then I'd like to hear how you think this would work. Not every property sells through a real estate agent. You might not find out a property sold until the tax records were updated. Your best bet is to contact the property owner directly and repeatedly.
phoenix, Feb 18 2008
  

       most properties are listed with an agent the great majority of those are listed on an MLS or other searchable database, those that sell without any kind of a listing tend to be private sales or transfers within family at which point odds are not good that you would ever have an opportunity to purchase in the first place. A system such as this would easily cover 98% of homes that might sell at any given time.
jhomrighaus, Feb 18 2008
  

       make a good friend in the real estate biz and they can watch the house for you via MLS.
dentworth, Feb 18 2008
  

       If you know the exact property you want to buy, then you don't need a real estate agent. Simply contact the current owner, and make your intentions clear. Even if they are not willing to sell right now, they will most likely inform you when they are, quite possibly giving you the opportunity to buy without the house even going on the market.   

       Of course, if you want to live in a particular building in New York City, then you should contact my wife, who is really pretty good at this kind of thing (3rd best broker in the highest grossing residential real estate office in the States, this past year, boast). She has helped many people find apartments in the exact building they wanted to be in, even though the apartments were not on the market.   

       (And that's the failing of your system - properties quite often never go on the open market, being sold before that, to people with the gumption to contact the owner.)
DrCurry, Feb 19 2008
  

       I suspect things are quite different in the big city, i know that out here many of the homes are not sold that way due to the incredible variety of homes available. According to my Realtor, most homes are sold using the MLS system as the sellers generally get better offers with a wider pool of purchasers.
jhomrighaus, Feb 19 2008
  

       Somebody else's design is your dream? bone.
Antegrity, Feb 19 2008
  

       //She has helped many people find apartments in the exact building they wanted to be in, even though the apartments were not on the market.//

So when are the FBI coming for her?
angel, Feb 19 2008
  

       //Somebody else's design is your dream? bone.//   

       What are you talking about? and why does this elicit a bone? and what does this comment have to do with the idea presented?
jhomrighaus, Feb 19 2008
  

       you can't just "go and build it" if the house is in a particular location, further it is not cost effective or practical to reproduce a classic Victorian or 18th century colonial, the materials alone in some cases do not even exist anymore(or only for exorbitant cost) Second is the issue of location, you cannot just build a house on the hill at the edge of town if there is already a house on that property. Many notable homes are notable because of the home combined with its setting and location. A center hall colonial on a back street is not the same as one on the hill at the end of main street.   

       Lastly many larger homes(at least in the US) tend to be custom homes with many unique features that cannot be found in other similar homes.   

       This idea provides a tool for those individuals who are home aficionados seeking to acquire a home that they feel a strong connection to.
jhomrighaus, Feb 19 2008
  

       If this caught on, it would also solve the annoying problem we used to have of strangers stopping by all the time to ask if our house might be for sale.
Ford, Feb 19 2008
  
      
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