I have been working with a particular type of North Lake Tahoe buyer over the past few months. They are extremely specific about what it is they want and the price point is somewhere in the $1-$2M, the property has to meet one critical criteria first and then numerous others.
The first is that it needs to have an HOA that allows for short-term rentals like Airbnb, VRBO. The other criteria have to do with considerations such as location (lower elevation, closer to the lake) home’s aesthetic (updated), and the complex’s amenities e.g. pool, hot tub, tennis.
These buyers are Zillow lovers so we have been sending one another numerous Zillow listings during this time, so far we have looked at online and in person perhaps two dozen properties. It can be confusing to keep track of and compare the specific aspects of each home like HOA cost, cost per square foot, price changes etc..
In order to help my buyers best track these homes on the platform they use the most I discovered a feature in Zillow I had not used before. Zillow has a side by side comparison grid view that visually helps to best compare multiple properties you are considering all on the same page.
The way to use this feature is first make sure you are signed into and have saved your homes form the Zillow website, not the app— it doesn’t seem to be an available feature on the app yet.
- Save the homes you would like to compare side by side by clicking on the heart symbol, then click on “saved homes” as highlighted in the picture below.
- Then you will see thumb nails of all of the homes you have saved. At this point you can click in the upper left corner of the thumbnails “compare” as shown in this picture below.
- Finally click the blue “COMPARE” button at the bottom of the page to load the side by side grid and you will see all of your properties in a format that allows for easy comparison. In the case below for example one item that we are noting is the difference in the monthly HOA dues.
It is reported that more than half of all home-shoppers in the US have purchased a home they first saw on Zillow. Considering that fact, using this very helpful side by side comparison feature should be in everyone’s Zillow tool kit.
Happy House Hunting!
