Last year a seller I was working with emailed me a link to an article about the home they were selling. When I visited the link, I found that the article was not specifically about the home for sale, but was instead about the sellers, revealing their names, education and work places to anyone that did a search. In a word, my seller thought it was “creepy.”
The Web site is www.Blockshopper.com, and to give you an idea of what they do, here is an article recently published about a home sale in Woodinville (revealing information about both the seller and the buyer):
http://seattle.blockshopper.com/news/story/700120400-Construction_firm_exec_buys_in_Woodinville
So I pose the question to you: would this make you uncomfortable, or do you find it useful? Blockshopper claims that the information is all from either public records or legitimate “news sources,” and that the purpose of the Web site is to help establish a sense of community and get people to know their neighbors.
Of course, this isn’t all Blockshopper does – they do include regular listings too and real estate brokers around the country even advertise on the site. But, back to my seller thinking it “creepy” – I’m afraid I have to agree with them. If someone is buying or selling a home, I don’t feel that their education and current and previous occupations should be advertised to the community. I think it violates privacy (not their “right to privacy”, just privacy itself). I don’t think I have worked with any buyer or seller who has felt comfortable with this.
As a real estate broker, I am able to “register” myself on Blockshopper to help increase my business. However, I haven’t been able to bring myself to do that yet – I just find something wrong with the way they go about things. Has anyone else had any experience with this site and feedback for me – good or bad? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
NORTH SEATTLE SARAH 