Agreed, anyone can do it. The question is– does Q&A help or hinder home sales?

Our gripe is not with posting questions and answers, so long as the owner agreed to it, it’s with posting FALSE INFO unbeknownst to the owner or listing agent. Zillow lets ANYONE say a home is for sale and start the Q&A without the owner’s knowledge. Here’s where the problems can arise. If someone is making false comments about an owner’s home (who has not listed the home for sale on zillow) HOW does that homeowner or listing agent who is not part of the conversation “flag” the info to get it removed. I know some elderly folks who dont use the internet. It would be IMPOSSIBLE for them to flag a false comment—heck, they wouldn’t even know it existed. Dont thinks that’s fair to the owner.

Lets say you have your house for sale–just a lawn sign and a listing in the newspaper and the local MLS. I know your home is for sale so I run over to zillow & say “hey people, T’s home is for sale” People start asking questions and I supply the answers as best I know. You have no idea this Q&A is going on. Is this fair to you? If you think so, then we have no problem if you don’t. But we think other owners should have the right to say “I want to be the only one who says my house is for sale on Zillow becasue I don’t want to be bothered policing the comments for false statements.

We just think owners ought to have a choice in the matter.

Being online and documented for “anyone” to read makes it very different from an Open House. To get the same info and/or rumors from an Open House…you actually have to ATTEND the Open House. Most people who attend Open Houses are actually interested in the house already. They’ve either seen the flyer, read the ad, or heard from a reliable source about the nice house that is worth checking out. They come to the Open House with little or no bias (and what bias is present is usually favorable to the property, thus the reason they attend the open house).

The difference with Zillow’s Q&A is that those same potential Buyer’s may never attend the Open House due to false or misleading information someone has posted about the property (and maybe unbeknown to the Seller or LA). The fact that a Buyer may “feel” comfortable or “at home” with this property is removed with online Open Houses. I can’t tell you how many times a client told me that they bought the house because it “felt” right for them the first time they walked through it.

Real estate is still sold with emotion. Regardless of how much “transparency” we create or how simple we make the process online…houses will always be sold because the “feel” like home.

I do like the analogy. Thinking about actual interactions of neighbors and potential buyers at open houses: how accurate does the public expect the responses to be on the Q&A? Is this a rumor mill among the neighborhood or is this a professional setting with accurate and appropriate responses?

Does Zillow have enough credibility so that the information presented in a Q&A has credibility as well?

If I read it online, it must be true?

Does an online Q&A hinder sales any more than a neighbor or tenant talking to a potential buyer at an open house, or does the scale of the Q&A make the difference?