Past sales history on a property

[Chris T.]

Most houses usually have a history in regards to their sales price / listing etc on zillow / trulia. I'm assuming they pull all the information from MLS.

Some of the houses I have found online do not have a number listed, even though it was listed or delisted. 

How does a non-realtor do that? To take out past listing price history. 

[Lisa K.]

@Chris T., it's my understanding that Zillow and Trulia do not have affiliation with the MLS, so the data they pull is predominantly from large information clearinghouses that have courthouse records, county assessor info and other public records of that sort which can be hugely behind on updated info. Trulia is actually owned by the Zillow Group but each provides some unique value.

Have you tried using Redfin for sales history or price drops? Redfin actually is associated with the various MLS so they get information practically in real-time from the agents (checking every 15-30 minutes for new listing info).

As for why there may be blankouts or 0, it could be for a number of reasons. It's possible that the property was quitclaimed and they only show 0 as the transfer amount. The better likelihood is that Zillow simply wasn't able to get that piece of information because it has not been recorded by the city/county, the recording takes months, or the amount simply hasn't trickled down yet.