Real Estate Blog Property Reviews Are Advertsing
May 19th, 2007 Deeper Thoughts, Geekage and Blogging
Some continuing thoughts from the Sweet Digs fallout discussed on my earlier post Sweet Digs, Sour Grapes and Compost.
The question we need to answer is “how can a blog do a property review and not get reamed out by listing agents and the MLS?” And do understand that Sweet Digs was always, always, going to get a spanking from the NWMLS. Despite claims to the contrary, they knowingly and purposely broke the rules. (The public of course loved Sweet Digs with 3000+ people following it on the RSS readers.)
The heart of the matter comes down to a simple question. Is showing someone else’s listing on my blog a form of advertising the listing, or is it able to be a truly objective independent review of the property?
The answer has to be – the showing of an actual property available for sale is a form of advertising. This is because the general purpose of your blog itself is intended to be advertising your services as an agent. Yes our blogs are extremely “soft sell”, we don’t all end every post with a call to action to buy or sell, we don’t try and spin the market, we even advise people with good information to possibly not buy or sell right now. But in the final analysis we do hope to gain clients through the blog. Your blog is advertising.
Plus you are required by law to make your broker of record and contact information appear on every page of your blog. Because you are showing the property, presenting yourself as an agent and obviously have your contact information out where people can see it, it would seem a short distance between a potential buyer calling you to start the process of buying the property. The only way to protect yourself is I think to be 100% honest that you want to buy side the property.
That being said, if you wish to show another agents listed property, you must gain permission to advertise their listing. Plus according to realtor ethics you must make it explicitly clear who has the listing and not pass it of as your own.
Now because you just asked permission to advertise the listing, you really can’t give the house a negative review. Thats a vital point. You can’t ask another agent to promote their listing and then double back and say the listing bites big time. You can’t even say the listing is average. You do have to promote it as positively as you would present your own listing.
In short, your blog simply cannot “review” another agents listing. Your publishing options are either “sales piece”, “boring as hell” or “libelous smearing”.
So my solution is;
1. Just cherry pick the very best properties to write about. I don’t mean the most expensive either. It can be great value for money, amazing features, special design or whatever makes your realtor sense tingle with “wow this is a great house”. That way you can gush over the pick of litter and not get in trouble for slandering the average or bad homes. I.e. “I saw 15 homes on tour this week, and this was the best one I saw. Just look at ABC and this XYZ, and it’s only on at $xxx,xxx if you can believe it”. It’s hard to imagine a listing agent getting tore up about that copy isn’t it.
2. Get written permission from the listing agent for the advertising.
3. Be 100% up front that the listing belongs to someone else and that you want to buy side the sale. Heck interview the listing agent in your copy.
4. Consider providing the listing agent with copies of your efforts and maybe even a “Best of the Bunch” sign rider.
5. Track if the house is sold, expired etc. Then edit your post with an addendum that covers that information.
Ideally, given enough time, your pick of the week becomes well known enough that it starts generating higher interest in the property simply because you picked it.
Best case scenario – listing agents fawning over you to come visit their property because they know that winning the pick of the week means an instant spike in showings and multiple offers.
Or did you not want your blog posts to have any effect at all?
May 19th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Your recommendations certainly look fairly bullet-proof, though perhaps quite onerous to follow.
However, here’s the point: Redfin would have been smacked down even if every home review had been saccharine-sweet. It wasn’t about some of the reviews being negative; it was about the reviews being a) by Redfin and b) ever-so-slightly out of the ordinary. The smackdown was about resistance to change, not about negative advertising.
May 19th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Thats quite possibly true Kevin, though as I understand it many other realtors also run afoul of the advertising other agents listings rules too.
I agree that it’s not exactly easy what I suggest either. And yes it’s ironic that a member of the public can write whatever they want about a home, while an agent can’t. Though we can get paid for the transaction, so… hmmm.