What happened to the Real Estate thread about 1322 Maryland Ave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a separate question related to that thread. Recently there have been a few threads that post links to houses, with or without a few words, that seem to be realtor posts. There’s nothing to indicate these threads are coming from buyers (“how are the schools/crime” or “just within our budget!”).

Somebody said the goal is to drive up hits on Redfin to get the property shown as “hot,” and maybe to find an interested buyer on DCUM.

So anyway, I don’t mind looking at these places. But if these are realtors, then this is essentially advertising, the Redfin angle, if true, seems a little deceptive.

I think it would be hard to control for this because, for instance, I've posted links to listings from my own neighborhood or neighborhoods where I like to look at real estate and asked for discussion on what people think. I would never just write "thoughts?" because I'm way too verbose for that, but the gist is the same. And those threads generally wind up being pretty interesting discussions of the neighborhood, house, pricing strategy, etc. A clever realtor could easily recreate a thread like that, but if it leads to genuine discussion, it would be hard to screen it out.

I think if you have a forum called "Real Estate" you just have to accept that sometimes realtors or sellers will try to game it for their own ends. But as long as the conversation is good, does it matter that much? If a listing is terrible, people will say that and buyers will see it, and it won't matter if they somehow manage to get it designated as a "hot" property on Redfin.

Agreed. I'm of the opinion that as long as the discussion is good, it doesn't matter what the first post says about the house (if in fact it says anything). But if I want a forum that works like that, I'm free to run one of my own.

I have no way of knowing which posts are from agents and which are genuine discussion posts, of course, but if a post is entirely and uncannily positive I get suspicious. Most houses aren't perfect, and the ones that are really interesting have big tradeoffs. I don't think a listing agent is capable of admitting that there's a problem with a house they're selling. And any agent at all familiar with DCUM will realize that a too-glowing post about a house will get a bunch of replies that (1) accuse them (accurately, in this example) of being the owner or an agent, and (2) detail each and every way the house, to the contrary of the OP's opinion, actually sucks. So posting an overly positive house "discussion" thread can backfire unless the agent thinks that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Well no, there’s not, because everybody has to click on the link before they can trash the house, and presto, it’s a Redfin “hot” listing.

That said, I find it funny when a realtor posts a link and everybody jumps on to trash it, like you say.