Liz Provo-Massachusetts 4 Sale By Owner

• Manage |RSSAlternative Business Models
• Manage |RSSReal Estate Events

We were solicited by foreclosure.com to include their listing on our regional website. As I was noodling through their website I noticed they also listed FSBO properties, which was strange for a foreclosure site. I was more surprised to see one of our listings appear - a $550,000 home. I contacted our advertiser to see if, by chance, they had posted to the other website and they were horrified to hear that their home was on a foreclosure site! I then questions the folks at foreclosure.com to ask how they got their listing data for FSBOs. The sales rep didn't know. HA! The listing had a very small tag that said "property is being sold by owner and is not in foreclosure." However, in order to learn more about the property, its location and how to contact the seller, you had to subscribe to their service. What a surprise. We are seeing more and more junk listings spread out over the internet as real estate portals scramble to call dibs on having the most listings. Buyers understand pretty quickly which sites are loaded with outdated listings or worse, fictitious listings and avoid returning to them. Luckily, they haven't had to "pay" (other than their personal information being used as a lead generator for agents, mortgage companies, etc.) for the dead ends in most cases. Today, everyone wants to syndicate property listings to beef up their site. Buyers will now be subjected to finding duplicate listings which have been syndicated multiple times. It's just another way to move junk listings from one site to another, increasing the clutter found on the internet today. It's sad, really.

I got a good chuckle after seeing the "Bad MLS Photos of the Day" website. The MLS is not the only holder of questionable photos. As a for sale by owner service, we've seen our share of photos worthy of a retake. We do try to help home sellers capture the best possible images for their slide shows, etc. I remember one seller whose dog followed him faithfully in every picture he took. The owner was oblivious to his canine friend and was very upset when the film was developed (this was before everyone had a digital camera, folks) and didn't know what to do. I was able to edit out the pooch in all his favorite locations to avoid retakes. Pet Picture Hints: Remove feeding bowls, litter boxes, crates, window seats, climbing poles, cover doggy doors, cat castles, pet toys, bones, beds...did I forget anything??? Oh yeah, an air purifier is a great investment.