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Plans are to include the latest Real Estate News and Market Reports on this page but for now I am using it for news about this Website. 

What Happened to the Search Results?

First, I would like to apologize to those of you that have relied on the search capabilities of our website and you have not been receiving accurate results.  If you have been using the pre-built searches, (Price Ranges, Neighborhoods, etc.), you may have noticed a drop in the number of homes found in the search results, and in some cases this may have gone to zero.

The problem started to occur in May, which is when the Tucson Association of Realtors switched MLS companies.  Soon after the switch I checked a couple of searches at random and the new system seemed to work fine.  In mid-June, however, I started to notice a problem.

Many of the neighborhood searches were coming up with zero results.  Upon further investigation, I found out why. 

In the old MLS, the neighborhood descriptions were truncated after the name.  For example, the neighborhood description for Rancho Del Lago or Rancho Vistoso was simply that; however, this was not the case in the new MLS. 

The legal name for these subdivisions actually contains additional information, such as “Rancho Del Lago (1-100)” or “Rancho Vistoso Neighborhood 10”, “Rancho Vistoso Nghborhd 5”. etc.  The new MLS uses these descriptions and not the truncated ones, so the results were showing zero matches.

We had to change almost every neighborhood search to the new subdivision name, and we have about 2,000 searches in total. In the case of large subdivisions with multiple subdivision names, we had to make as many as 12 changes to each search.  Rita Ranch, for example, has 28 separate subdivisions.

Have we corrected all of the searches?  We hope so, but considering the number of changes we had to make there may be a few mistakes. As we add new Price Ranges and Specialty Searches (4 Bedrooms or more, etc.), we re-test every search and link. (For information on web page changes, see “New Searches, Features & Website Improvements”).

If you do find a search where the results are zero or less than you expected, please let us know.  We will eventually verify every search, but we can always use your help to identify those that need to be corrected.

Thank you for your patience and support.  Changing MLS Systems is a major endeavor, and it has taken time to find out the differences and how to adjust to them.

Rob & Catherine Hallberg

Homes@InsideTucsonRE.com

New Searches, Features & Website Improvements

I have added a number of new features including new links between pages to make it easier to move around, new price ranges, new short sale & foreclosure articles and eventually this page will be devoted to the latest Real Estate news, Market Reports and links to the most recent Blogs I have written. Here are some highlights:

New Price Ranges

When I first set up the price range searches, I checked the search results for each area in order to use ranges that would result in no more than 20 or 30 results.  This was in 2005-2006, when prices were much higher. 

At first I resisted changing the price ranges as I hoped prices would rebound.  I realize now that lower prices will be with us for a while, which has created the need to add new searches or alter the existing ones.

For example, the first price range for an area may have been “Up to $200,000”, and I would increment these searches by $25,000 until the higher prices ranges, where a $50,000 increment makes more sense.

 In 2006, a search of “Up to $200,000 may have resulted in 10 homes or less. Today there might be 75 homes, which is far too many to have to go through.  So I have started adding additional searches based on the current prices.

For example, instead of “Up to $200,000”, I may have dropped this to “Up to $150,000 and then added new searches for “$200,000 to $225,000” and $225,000 to $250,000”.   This is an ongoing process.

As I add additional searches, I have also changed the search pages to provide new search categories, such as “Homes with 4 Bedrooms or More”, and have added additional links to make it easier to move from one page to another. An example of the new page and format may be found in all of the Southeast/Vail search pages; here is one of them: http://insidetucsonrealestate.com/se_tucson_homes.  The Active Adults and Golf Property Pages have also been updated.

New Articles: Short Sales & Foreclosures

I have also added a number of new articles, primarily on Foreclosures and Short Sales. These “financially distressed” properties are very common in today’s market, and there is both good and bad information available on the Internet. 

The articles I have written are based on our experience and the Tucson area, and you may find them to be a little more practical and pragmatic than those on other websites. Here is a link to articles specific to Short Sale Buyers which I have labeled, “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly”.  http://insidetucsonrealestate.com/buying_short_sales.html

For Sellers: http://insidetucsonrealestate.com/selling_short_sales.html

Next Up: News, Reports & My Blog

There is one more unfinished project, which is our “News and Reports” page. One section will be for communications like this, from me to our Users. Another section will have articles on Real Estate and the market, updated daily. There will also be a Reports section that shows current market prices and trends, and the last section will contain the most recent Blog posts.

I have not been consistent with postings to my Blog as the search changes have taken precedence. I intend to write a Blog twice a week once I get past the other website changes.

Overall I believe these are very positive changes that will provide more features and benefits to you.  We are always open to suggestions, of course, and feel free to send us yours.

Thank you for your patience, support and suggestions. Please feel free to contact us any time to ask questions, submit recommendations or report problems.

Warmest Regards,

Rob & Catherine Hallberg

Homes@InsideTucsonRE.com

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Our objective in designing InsideTucsonRealEstate.com was to provide the absolute best, single-source resource for information and advice pertaining to the sale or purchase of real estate in Tucson & Southern Arizona. We have also included extensive search capabilities into our website, as we know that over 90% of Buyers and Sellers search for homes on the Internet before contacting a Realtor.