Googling (Facebooking? Zillow-ing?) Your Buyer/Seller Financial institutions are subject to something called the “Know Your Customer” rule, to prevent identity theft fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing. I’m starting to think that real estate has something equivalent, called the “Know Your Buyer (or Seller)” rule. By that, I mean that I’m increasingly seeing clients “Google”...Read More
Realtor Dress Code Upgrade? No, I’m not seeing any Realtors don formal wear (like tuxedo’s) just yet. But there do seem to be more men wearing ties and sports coats lately, and women wearing fancy scarves and the like. What’s going on? “Dress for Success” I’d guess a couple things: –Older, more established Realtors are...Read More
To Twitter or Not to Twitter (that is the question) Non-Realtors wouldn’t necessarily know it, but there’s a huge debate going on within the Realtor community at the moment about the need to get up to speed with — “re-tool” for, if you will — so-called social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Here’s...Read More
Wrong Number(s) Real estate Web sites like Trulia, Zillow, and Cyberhomes now all offer some version of what are called “automated valuations.” That is, they crunch publicly available records and generate an estimated fair market value for millions of homes nationally. How accurate are they? Put it this way: if you can find a Seller...Read More
Is Zillow Getting Smarter?I’ve discussed third-party real estate sites such as Zillow and Trulia previously on this blog (“Trulia Hits — and Mostly Misses“; “Zestimates Wildly Off-Target“). The verdict? In most cases, you’d be better off throwing darts to establish your home’s value. That’s because publicly available housing statistics — and dated ones at that...Read More
Trulia.com Hits — and (Mostly) Misses Like Zillow.com, Trulia.com promises to arm prospective home buyers with reams of data about homes for sale. Buyers can search by property type, price, square footage, zip code, etc.; get information about schools and other community info; and even pose questions to the Trulia. com “community” that generate email...Read More
