The internet is awesome, you can pretty much say whatever you want into your phone and get an answer to the question.  However, have you ever searched for an aswer to a question on Google and found the answer to be incorrect or lacking?   It's happened to all of us, either we used words that weren't searched as much so Google got confused and gave us a wrong answer or we asked a question that we knew part of the answer and Google didnt' help you at all.   This leads you to either perform a deeper search or go deeper in the search results.   Even then when you do find what you're looking for, chances are you found some suspect sites.     

Reason 1:  We have too much information.

We have an infinite number of information sources, but no one really to determine what truth is.   This is true about life as well as real estate.   We know median price, average price, days on market, who sold the home last and for how much.   You'd think that all this data would make us better decision makers, but in fact, the opposite is true.    Assuming that all the information was correct,  which is relevant.  In real estate, the information you can find is always past.  Meaning it's OLD DATA.  If you're buying a home in Dacula, GA, then you do need to know what the prices are and what things are going for, but you need to know the concrete infomation so you can make an offer, but the "selling climate' is just as important.  It usually takes a real estate professional to be able to help you with that - someone who is doing it every day. 

Reason 2:  Misinterpretation of the Information

The other problem we have is a very common psychological one called "projection."  Essentially, projection is where your experience and your "life lens" shape how you interpret information.    While this post is about real estate, projection is often seen in relationships.   When one person perceives incorrectly the intentions of another, projection is usually the culprit.   

So what does this have to do with real estate?   

Glad you asked!  We all love the that there is a ton of real estate information, but unfortunately there's no government regulation on CORRECT data.  In fact, this is the biggest case for blockchain in my opinion, but we'll write about that another time.   Zillow, Trulia and others have no restrictions on what information they can display or whether it's actually correct.  Furthermore, in many cases the correct information leads to false conclusions about the data.   

For example, say that a diverse (architecurally) neighborhood has a mixture of 3 bedroom homes and has up to 5 bedroom mansions.  The 3 bedroom homes run 1500 square feet, while the 5 bedroom homes are 3,000 square feet.  If this neighborhood has a 3 bedroom sale and nothing else, for a few months, what do you think Zillow will report as the median price point?  That's right, it'll be significantly less than if a larger home sold.   Now a larger home goest on the market.  What do you think will happen to buyers that look at this home on Zillow?  They will think it's overpriced.     So in this example, Zillow is reporting correct data about the median price point of a neighborhood, but with no one there to interpret what's going on, the newly listed home will be perceived as overpriced.  

Reason 3:  Wrong Or Misleading Information

I believe that most of the problems in real estate result out of misinterpretation by both parties, but sometimes the information is just plain wrong.  I can remember getting calls two or three years after I sold a home in Lawrenceville, GA off a zillow listing.  Even today you can often find multiple listings of the same address for homes on this favorite site.  The problem isn't so much that there are multiple listings of the same address, but that the information is DIFFERENT!  How are you supposed to relocate from Detroit to Davenport FL if you don't even know what's the real information or not?

The reasons for this is pretty simple.  These tech companies leverage intenet traffice to sell leads (that's you the home buyer) to real estate agents.   Unfortunately, for you an the real estate agents they care little for quality.  None of them have any incentive to deliver quality information to the users.  Their customers aren't you the home buyer, but rather the real estate agents.   

This is why you should seek out a good honest real estate agent.   IF you can't get a referral, perhaps review a real estate agent directory or check out their reviews.   However, don't fall for the information trap, because you could see an agent that has an office in one city and yet lives in another.  You have to ask them!   What areas do they actually service?  Where have they done the most business?   The easy test for this is to ask them "Which neighborhoods do they recommend for you?"  if they can't name neighborhoods based on your search criteria, then they don't know the area.