It's All About Giving Bad Information...

What do Redfin Scouting Reports, Zillow, Truilia and Realtor.com all have in common? Each of them is very consistent in providing poor information on a routine basis to members of the public.

Recently Redfin created an Agent Scouting Report so counsumers could look up the past sales data on most agents around the country, mind you the title of it reads... "ANY AGENT AROUND THE COUNTRY." As expected, it's not entirely accurate. You'll notice there's a disclaimer on the bottom to defend it's inaccuracy, much like the Zillow Zestimates.

Everyone once in awhile I'll get a phone call about one of my listings that I've closed on several years ago. A consumer will visit Truilia, Homes.com, Realtor.com or Zillow and find one of my listings that are listed as ACTIVE when in fact it sold 3-4 years ago.

WHY DO THESE WEBSITES HOST OUTDATED SALES DATA?

These companies need inventory. They need food on the shelves so to speak. It's not the home they're trying to sell, but the TRAFFIC that's interested - YOU THE CONSUMER. They take YOUR information and turn around and sell it directly to REALTORS and Loan Officers. It's a huge business. Google anything about real estate and you're likely to end up on a website that will ultimately attempt to capture your information.

And I suppose it if it's legal, then there's nothing wrong with it, right?

The TERRIBLE thing is that consumers are making decisions solely based on what they find on the interent. Just this weekend I had a person contact me about a home whose value I estimated at $210,000.00. They argued with me that they 'had seen a appraisal.' The appraisal they spoke of was eppraisal.com, not an appraisal, but an online aggregated GUESS (owned by Zillow). Texas is a non-disclosure state and our sales information isn't available for these companies to provide to the general public. They use tax data, loan values and only God knows what else.

Bad information is the worst thing a consumer could arm themselves with before making any decisions about buying or selling a home. The motive behind these companies is to make money off of agents and lenders. Plain and simple.

And in case you were wondering why agents don't do this themselves, it's because we CAN'T! We can't host outdated listings on our websites... we could lose our real estate license. It's against our Code Of Ethics:

Standard of Practice 12-8

The obligation to present a true picture in representations to the public includes information presented, provided, or displayed on REALTORS^®’websites. REALTORS^® shall use reasonable efforts to ensure that information on their websites is current. When it becomes apparent that information on a REALTOR^®’s website is no longer current or accurate, REALTORS^® shall promptly take corrective action. (Adopted 1/07)

Everytime a Realtor lists a home on their perspective MLS it's automatically syndicated to dozens, if not hundreds of different websites - without the authority or discretion of the listing agent or brokerage. In otherwords, we can't control where your home ends up! Nor is it feasable for an agent to police random websites about the accuracy of every one of their listings.

Many agents I know have complained to these companies without success. These compaines aren't policed by the National Association of Realtors and we cannot file ethics complaints against non-members of the National Association of Realtors. And why would they want to remove outdated listings if they're making them money?

So there you have it. If you want REAL information contact a local agent to get local information that's in REAL time.

let the buyer beware!