I received a note from Mollie Wasserman, a broker with Keller-Williams in Boston over the weekend. Seems she penned the “Real Estate Internet Warning” that I have been using on our website for the past several years and wanted to be sure she got credit for doing so. I was happy to oblige and updated my site.
It made me think about the warning and why I thought it was important to put it up in the first place. In case you haven’t tuned into it, the warning states:
REAL ESTATE INTERNET WARNING© - Despite advertising claims to the contrary, the Internet is NOT an experienced Real Estate Professional. It cannot consult, counsel, advise, have knowledge of local laws and market conditions, make judgments, negotiate, "own" the result, or most importantly, understand your individual goals and needs and care about you as a Client. Furthermore, the above data offered at this website is intended to assist homebuyers and sellers, but data by itself can be very misleading. To obtain an accurate interpretation of any information you're receiving online, please contact us.
We all get conditioned into thinking that if it’s found on the Internet it must be right and that in the data itself, the answers are found. While data and information online have value, such content is not a substitute for local experience, market knowledge, or negotiating skills. I think this is truer today than ever, as the Internet grows and more services (ie, data) comes online. An excellent example is Zillow.com. If you haven’t checked it out, I encourage you to. It’s a site that professes to be able to tell you what your house is worth just by entering your address. It’s a wrong assumption & perhaps a very costly one.
There is a difference between data and knowledge. zillow.com may be able to provide you with data about recent sales in your neighborhood, but it can’t have the expertise to know what the value is of your specific property. Expecting so may cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
Every real estate transaction is unique and the needs of every buyer/seller is different. While it's easy to computerize book orders and stock market transactions, real estate sales don't fit in a mold — one house is not exactly like another, nor are any two buyers, two sellers or two transactions.
A real example is a recent sale of a condo on the island that sold for perhaps $250,000 less than what it was worth. The circumstances were unique; an estate where the children inherited a property, with no interest in the property itself but some interest in the cash it represented. I assume they were happy with the amount of cash they received and I expect the buyer was happy with the great deal he got. Did this transaction make the surrounding properties worth less or should it be considered for what it was, a sale by a very motivated seller for a specific reason? If a consumer were to act on this information without proper context, they could very well reach incorrect conclusions and achieve undesirable results.
It is important for us all to remember that while the internet can provide information, it can never interpret it. The bottom line: A Realtor's® true value is not in helping you find a home, or getting you numbers regarding comparable sales, though we certainly have the tools to do so. Our TRUE value is in using our experience and expertise to get you the best value once you find your home or the most money in your pocket when it comes time to sell.
My thanks to Mollie Wasserman for her insight and excellent warning message. I’ll continue to reflect it at my website and hope that that if you can use my experience and expertise, you will give me a call. It may be worth thousands of dollars!
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