Home buyers in St Louis looking for their questions about home buying can now look to a new resource specific to the St Louis area, the new St Louis real estate wiki.

If I was a non-real estate or legal professional, I would ask, “why does it matter? Why do we need a real estate wiki specific to St Louis?”

As real estate professionals, we’ve seen for years where information on some of the nationally known websites, newspapers and television shows describe the real estate transaction or process of buying a home that is specific to the state they are covering. Typically there’s no disclaimer saying that, but ‘all real estate is local.’ Real estate is governed by local laws, which is shaped and influenced by local customs.

One example is the sale contract. Sales contracts must be legally appropriate in the state that they are used. Going one step further, some states, like Missouri, have different local associations that provide contracts and forms that are used solely in their local area. In St Louis, Realtors mostly use contracts from the St Louis Association of Realtors, and can also use contracts provided by the Missouri Association of Realtors. Other items are laws that vary from state to state. When the general public wants information about real estate, often times they get information that isn’t accurate for the state in which they live or are buying property. This may cause confusion and problems with transactions based on relying on inaccurate information.

Another item is the difference in local market conditions and practices.

After a few years in the business, it started to register with us that some seller clients would comment about not receiving offers after open houses.  It didn’t register immediately, but one day when watching a show about amateur home remodelers, it dawned on me that seller’s view shows like that as real estate resources.  On that show, they typically show the remodeling process all the way up to the seller’s first open house.  After that, they interview the seller, which almost always refers to the offers they’ve received.   As viewers, we can only assume that the offers are received at the open house.  In reality, that probably doesn’t happen, but in areas where the home supply is much lower (like California) it may be more common.  In St Louis, most open house attendees aren’t in the market to buy a home within the next 60 days, and some are waiting more than a year.  This underscores why having a local real estate resource is desperately needed.