If you look at any one of the hundreds of “real estate agent controlled” multiple listing services (as well as the major search engines most people rely on like Zillow, Trulia, RedaFin, realtor.com, etc,.), they are a plethora of detailed information from detailed written descriptions, scientific wild ass guess value estimates, and hundreds of data fields where features can be chosen (or omitted) so that consumers/clients can pick and choose from several desired features to find their “dream home”.
But wait —- there’s more!
Yes, much more…more information available to select every single feature you want in a house – or can you?
For example, if you have a client in need of a ranch style home and prefers to have a basement but NO stairs from the garage to the house, there’s a way to do that. Many multiple listing services have a field for “Parking” and in that fields, there is usually a selection called “Drive Under” which denotes you park under the house and walk up a flight of stairs to the main home level. If the data is correctly entered on each listing, then the possibilities can be reduced down to the ones that fit those exact criteria and the prospective home Buyer more easily finds a more suitable home.
In theory, you can select a search for homes with those you desire. But what happens if that selection is not entered with accurate information by the real estate agent, their assistant, or an office clerk who usually enters that information? Your client oriented search portal selection of homes will populate with houses that have undesirable criteria which will result in client frustration over seeing home choices that don’t fit what they want. Is that best serving our clients’ needs?
It all depends…on the client to which you are referring and whether or not they buy the house.
Will real estate professionals organizations ever correct the incorrect data (i.e., garbage) problem?
NO, they WILL NEVER CORRECT inaccurate data…
Wanna know why?
Because the real estate listing agent has one, and only one, responsibility to their Sellers: to get an acceptable offer. So if they market the home to the widest possible market without being accurate and get enough traffic to the home, then by sheer numbers they should get an offer and let the Seller determine if the offer is good enough to sell the home in the free, open real estate market!
So, do we just tell our clients “hey, live with it-sometimes information is wrong”?
It seems we have chosen not to solve the age old issue when computer databases were first born, generated, and maintained…
GARBAGE IN – GARBAGE OUT!