Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Real estate professionals in the US are complaining of coming across far too many errors with online property listings, and say that agents are not doing enough to make sure that the details on their listings are kept up to date.
Errors reported include incorrect prices listed. Courtesy of Doma Realty
Troy Deierling, who works in the Sedona, Arizona, real estate industry, is just one example. Recently he remembers one client of his asking to make appointments to view three homes in the area, having found them online.
However, Deierling had to disappoint his client when he found out that all three of the homes his client was interested in were already sold. Unfortunately for the client, the real estate agent who listed them simply hadn’t gotten around to de-listing those properties.
Some homes have even been located in the wrong place! Courtesy of RW Acclaim
And it seems that Deierling is not the only one who has experienced these problems. Other problems noted besides the above include listings not being kept up to date with the latest information, such as not indicating when a home’s price has been cut.
It’s estimated that altogether, around 25% of the information that real estate agents submit to online portals is never updated – such as when the property’s price changes or when the property has been sold, says Trulia.
Real estate agents need to do more to keep their listings accurate. Courtesy of Active Rain
Many real estate listing websites like Trulia say that they lookout for inaccurate data as a matter of course, but in order to do so, they need to rely on information from MLS feeds.
The onus is on real estate agents to keep their online property listings on the MLS up to date, say industry leaders.
