RealtyStore.com

Author: Kalicia Bateman

• Bank Foreclosures and Repossessions
• Government Foreclosures and HUD Homes
• Short Sales and Pre-Foreclosures
• Rent-to-Own and For-Sale-By-Owner Listings

Top Ranked Companies

#1 Zillow chevron_right

6.1 Overall Score

4.4

star star star star star_half

(518)

View Profile View Profile

#2 Realtor.com chevron_right

5.5 Overall Score

4.2

star star star star star_border

(151)

View Profile View Profile

#3 Apartments.com chevron_right

5.3 Overall Score

4.1

star star star star star_border

(123)

View Profile View Profile

thumb_up

The Good

• Trial period
• Search filtering
• Listing information

One of the things that we liked about the website was the $1, 30-day subscription. While we felt that the monthly subscription price was extremely high, the 30-day trial period gives the home seeker the option of canceling the subscription without incurring the high price of the regular subscription. For $1, a home seeker and easily search for a home and possibly find one. We liked the fact that Realty Store focuses on home foreclosures. We compared the number of listings available (1 million) on Realty Store to the number of homes that were listed on Zillow. While Zillow has over 2,000,000 homes to search from, Zillow only lists about 577,000 foreclosures as of August 2016. Reality Store offers many more foreclosures for customers who are searching for a home starting from around $10,000 or higher. While the search functionality of Realty Store is somewhat limited, it is very easy to filter the search results. There are multiple sorting options available for customers who use the website. Homes can be organized into lists with the following options:

• City
• Photos
• Price
• Sq. Feet
• Most Recent
• Type of Sale
• Property Type
• Status

We really liked the photos that were provided with each listing. In order to see all of the photos, you must subscribe to the website. However, we saw as many as 40 pictures for some of the homes that were included in the foreclosure listings on the website. Some of these photos included multiple viewings of the exterior of the home and rooms inside the home. Even though Zillow provides the aerial view of a home, we really liked the in-depth view we got of a home with Realty Store. One of the things that really peaked our interest with Realty Store was the accuracy of the listings (for the most part). While we found twenty-year-old bank data on occasion with Zillow, Realty Store provides up to date information on a home that includes the following:

• Detailed Pricing Information
• Financial information on the Outstanding Loan and Default for a foreclosed home.
• Building Structure Details
• Multiple photos.

Ultimately, we felt that paying for a subscription with Realty Store got us much more information than with Zillow.

thumb_down

The Bad

• No mobile app
• High monthly subscription price
• Customer support

There were some cons with going with Realty Store. One of the biggest concerns we had was with the lack of a mobile app. We found that Zillow and other similar websites had support for every type of smart device, including tablets. more customers could benefit from using Realty Store if the company developed a mobile app for searching its listings. We also were somewhat taken back by the high price of a monthly subscription. Even though the $1 30-day trial is a great deal, we felt that the $49.60 was too high for the consumer. We found that the high subscription price might be more appropriate for a real estate broker who was in the business of buying foreclosed homes and selling them at a higher value. For the general consumer, we feel that Realty Store costs way too much. There should be a free search functionality that lets the site user see more basic information about a home. Our customer support experience was also somewhat lacking. There is a live chat feature, but this does not pop up until you are a few levels deep into the website. As well, there was a lag time before we were connected with an online support representative. Realty Store mostly responds to customer issues via its email form on the website.

gavel

The Bottom Line

Even though Realty Store has some of the most comprehensive listings in the industry for foreclosed homes, we hesitate to recommend them for the prospective homeowner. Here is what concerned us about Realty Store:

• The high monthly subscription price to a search site that lacked detailed search criteria (you can't search by property type, street address, etc).
• There is not a lot of information about a home price that is influenced by major renovations, similar homes in the area, and other listings.
• The site only lists foreclosures (primarily). We found a few rent-to-own properties, however.

We did like the following about Realty Store, which might make them a great search listings tool for someone looking to purchase a foreclosed home:

• Homes starting at $10k.
• More than 1,000,000 listings.
• As many as 38 photos were provided on some listings, as well as detailed information about the financial status of the home and the building structure.