Consumer Beware: Some Housing Information Has Strings Attached

Real Estate Agent Beware:  Leads From Lead Generators May or May Not Use Your Services

In a highly entertaining article and comments section, Greg, over at BlueRoof savages real estate lead generator HousValues.com like what my Michigan Wolverines did to Notre Dame this year.

For consumers of real estate information, you need to read the small print on the sites offering free information on the housing market that require any kind of contact information.  (Disclaimer:  S.E. Michigan Real Estate has no small print, because we don’t require registration prior to giving you housing data, facts or our opinion!)  Chances are real good that if you submit any legitimate contact information you will be contacted by an agent looking to help you out.  Of course, the one notable exception to this rule, so far, seems to be Zillow.com - still wondering when I will be contacted by one of my contemporaries to sell my domicile.

For agents, heed the remarks of John C. in the article above.  He is bang on right when he points at the disconnect between where agents advertise and where consumers look for real estate.

A recent survey by NAR (National Associations of Realtors) has found that 79% of realtors use the printed media to attract buyers. Yet the same survey found that 78% of buyers use the web to locate a home!

We as an industry have been, what’s the word?  Wait for it…..myopic! 

The one constant in the real estate industry is change.  How is it that agents have been so slow to move to where the consumers are?  I believe this delay is due to how hot the market was when the consumer was sliding, inevitably, to the net for housing information.  When agents are ‘busy’ all else seems to fall off the radar screen.  You know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

[Originally posted at S.E. Michigan Real Estate]