Saturday, September 10, 2005
Real Estate Buyers: “INFORMATION PLEASE!”
How is it that some real estate agents (including Realtors), those individuals who claim to be tireless public servants with only your safety and best interests at heart, can be so unconcerned with the desires and wishes of their customers??
It seems like the only reason some agents put what little information online they do is so they can get the contact information from visitors to their site, by hiding it behind registration forms. And in some cases sprouting up, even hiding it behind costs - such as this MLS (Multiple Listing Service) in the Northeast. (note: this link will only work while the listing is active. If you get a “listing not found” page, just go to the “Property Finder” link and search for a property to see an example)
Buyers want information. They want information about your house, and they want to be able to find it easily. Realtor.com and most agents are not delivering, so buyers are turning to different sources where they CAN get lots of information. One of the biggest reasons buyers and sellers are attracted to the “For Sale By Owner” option, right behind cost savings, is that For Sale By Owner real estate sites are doing a much better job of making the most information about a property easily accessible to buyers, for free and without registration forms.
If you’re a home seller, you want to get information about your home in front of as many potential buyers as you can. And agents aren’t delivering. A content survey showed that an average of 30% more property information was available from For Sale By Owner sites than from real estate agent sites. Fewer and fewer buyers are looking where only limited information is hidden behind registration forms and fees.
The more information buyers get, the happier they are. And the less they have to give in return, the even happier they are. That is confirmed by this newspaper’s online poll concerning the previously mentioned Northeast region MLS, which found that 92% of people say they should not have to pay for access to property data.
For getting loads of information to buyers, sites like FSBOzone.com and ForSaleByOwner.com are unsurpassed, even by real estate agents.
Why do most agents hide the property information about their listings? Because they think they own it.
(to be continued in next post…)
~Robert Creek
The FSBO Blog
September 14th, 2005 at 6:13 am
I have been sitting on this for a while and it’s a tough issue to resolve. I am a real estate broker in Raleigh, NC and I am fully aware this has been an ongoing issue. After reading posts of the subject I have finally addressed it in my blog http://jasonbgraves.blogspot.com/ I would ike some true consumer opinion to help develop the argument of both sides. Truly, my interest is in that of the consumer but many so called VOW’s are nothing more than sites trying to sell consumer information back to real estate agents and have little to do with practicing actual real estate sales and marketing.