…and I can’t tell you anything from a postcard. I confess.
Our industry has been swamped with ‘automated home values.’ From Zillow, to Trulia, to Market Snapshot….they are everywhere!
I have to admit, I have spent a fortune this year on subscribing to these services. You get a really nice postcard from me, and you click on the ‘site’ and enter your own personal code (very clever I think) and it knows who you are and sends you an idea of what your house might “sell” for.
Rubbish! (This is a term I borrow from my friends across the pond. It means “to criticize severely and reject as worthless…i.e. “He has pointedly rubbished professional estimates of the development and running costs.”)
But, I digress.
Houses are not a commodity that can be valued on a demographic stamp across the board. Houses are the products of their owners. Houses have personalities and histories. Houses are not valued on square footage with a hand stamp. Houses are not hamburger. Houses do not sell ‘by the pound’.
Now I realize that everyone is a bit curious about their home’s value. I also realize that homeowners hesitate to contact a REALTOR to find out what their home’s value is….it might be a waste of time for the REALTOR because the homeowner isn’t ready to sell, they are just curious. I get that. It takes a lot of work to come up with a market analysis on a home..and it takes an in-person viewing of the home to compare to the past sales, current homes for sale. It’s not plug and play. The REALTOR thinks they are going to the doorstep to present to the homeowner their ‘services’ when all the homeowner wants is a “what do you think, how much is my house really worth?” The fact of the matter is, it takes the same homework on the REALTOR’s part to produce the same intended result. What is my home worth?
The homeowner is probably terrified of being sold to, even if they are thinking about selling. They don’t know that the person coming into their home isn’t going to produce a rain forest full of papers, presentations, documents, charts and graphs with an accompanying slide show about how they are the REALTOR to choose to sell their home. They just want to know what is my house worth. The accompanying presentation doesn’t add to the solution.
Let’s look at the scenario. You have a home that you have lovingly cared for, polished every countertop, kept everything in perfect running order. You have updated the home as trends and fashions require. You have replaced flooring over the years, spruces up the landscape to the point of having an outside oasis that the entire neighborhood speaks about with envy. You are the owners of what our industry calls “the cream puff.”
Then, there is the neighbor. There is the neighbor who hasn’t changed the brass mirrored fixtures since 1985, let alone sucked out the insects that have accumulated in the recesses of the octagonal glass pieces since 1988. The carpet…well, it was carpet at one time, now it’s simply a covering for what was known as padding. The landscape is a vast gaping wasteland of…weeds. The bathroom fixtures are a lovely combination of gold and chrome which produce a nice spray of water through the calcium filled screens on the faucets. The hot water heater bangs along to the beat of Sly and the Family Stone.
Now the neighbor receives the gorgeous postcard with the private code and accompanying website ‘landing page’ and the neighbor with Sly and the Family Stone banging in the background enters their code into the website and ‘voila’, home value is calculated! He’s thrilled! His home is soaring in value and all he needs to do is put up a sign and the buyers will flock! He’s not going to have to do any work on his house, this is a “sellers’ market!”. He’s read about it in the papers, after all…
Hold on Lone Ranger. Not so fast. What about those light fixtures that are almost ready to be sold in a vintage market, but….not yet as another decade has to pass before they are considered a museum piece. What about the floor covering that crunches under your feet? What about that percussion instrument you think is a hot water heater? What about the…lot that could be a yard if only there was a plant on it that looked like it was planned?
It’s not fair.
What about the proud cream puff neighbor who has the most amazing house on the block because of the sweat equity that has been put into the house? What about the landscaping, the updating, the care that has been put into the house, not for the sake of selling the house but for the benefit of the homeowners who cared for their home just out of pure enjoyment?
It’s not fair.
It’s not fair to either party. It’s a misrepresentation to the homeowner who has lived in his home without raising a finger, and it isn’t fair to the homeowner who has worked week after week to keep his home a castle.
Both homeowners are getting flawed information.
It’s also not fair to our industry as REALTORS.
It is not fair to us that the values are being sent out there without a care in the world…misrepresenting (yes I’m using that word again) the most important asset that most people have…their HOME. As a REALTOR I don’t take what I do lightly…I don’t like that our industry has used a homeowner’s curiosity as a way to get to the doorstep. I don’t like that I’ve spent money in hopes of getting a curious homeowner to contact me when they are ready to sell and they will be amazingly impressed by this clever marketing scheme that I have come up with.
I apologize for having done this. I won’t be doing it anymore. I will send you information about what other homes have sold for. When you ask me to. I have automated programs on my website that I’ll keep there just in case you get curious about how they operate. I will keep you updated on the market should you care to know. I will come to your house and tell you what your home is worth based on its present condition and if you aren’t ready to sell I’m not going to bore you to death with my slide presentations, charts, graphs and demographic information that I can pull from (wait…)..another one of those complex systems. Yes, I use them, because they are useful when I need that information.
Oh, and Zillow? Let me make this simple. They are not REALTORS and those are misrepresentations. That’s another blog post.
Let’s agree to be honest with each other. If you just let me know that you aren’t ready to sell but you really just would like to know where your home lines up in the value game, I’m there! I want you to know what your home is worth. I want you to have the correct information.
I think that’s fair.
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