IN West Jefferson Hills Winter 2018 | Page 16

INDUSTRY INSIGHT REAL ESTATE SPONSORED CONTENT How Your Online Presence Can Impact a Real Estate Transaction I n the information age in which we currently live, I thought it would be appropriate to provide some insight into how personal information on the internet can positively, as well as negatively, impact a real estate transaction. I found some very applicable info related to this subject on the agent portal side of the Realtor.com website. We “google” the new restaurant down the block, the handyman we’re thinking of hiring and certainly our prospective dates. As tempting as it may be to gather Internet intel on the person who’ll be sitting across from you at the closing table, here are the pros, cons and pitfalls to watch out for when googling a home buyer or seller. WHY HOME BUYERS SHOULD GOOGLE SELLERS Knowledge is power and the information you can fi nd through public records or social profi les can give you a negotiating edge, says Bruce Ailion, a real estate agent and attorney at RE/MAX Town and Country in Atlanta. For example you may fi nd out that the sellers are going through a divorce, itching to move to another house they have already purchased or are searching for a home that would aff ord them a shorter commute to work. Any of this background could clue you in to a seller’s pain points, timeline or fi nancial realities. What to watch out for: Don’t automatically believe everything you read on social media as that can backfi re, says Flavia Berys, real estate broker and attorney with DLA Piper in San Diego: “You can make a lot of guesses based on what you fi nd on social media, but a lot of those guesses might be wrong.” Let’s say you fi nd out the seller is getting a divorce; you assume that means they’re desperate to sell, so you can totally “low-ball” them, right? Wrong. What if they are independently wealthy and not in a hurry? Or, what if another non-nosy buyer who doesn’t know about the potential divorce off ers market value, leaving your bid looking paltry by comparison? As it relates to sellers and buyers, there are few things on social media and web searches that will be pertinent to the home-buying process, Berys says. WHY HOME SELLERS SHOULD GOOGLE BUYERS Odds are, you want to leave your house in good hands, right? And if you like your neighbors, you’ll want to fi nd someone nice for them to live next to. You might fi nd out that the buyer just got married, earned a major promotion or maybe already has children in the school system and wants to stay in that system to not disrupt their routine. “If you’re a seller with multiple attractive off ers, you might tell yourself that you’ll feel more comfortable with the transaction by searching on social media to see what you can fi nd out about the various potential buyers,” notes Scott Reidenbach, founding principal of Reidenbach & Associates in Wayne, PA. This Industry Insight was written by Darlene B. Kruth, a Sales Executive with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices The Preferred Realty. Darlene is a licensed real estate agent in the state of Pennsylvania and has designations as an Accredited Staging Professional (“ASP”) and a Seniors Real Estate Specialist (“SRES”). For more information regarding Darlene’s services and qualifi cations, please contact her at 412.831.0100 x3013 (offi ce), 412.874.0415 (cell), email her at [email protected], or fi nd Darlene’s facebook business page at Darlene Kruth, REALTOR®. 14 724.942.0940 TO ADVERTISE ❘ icmags.com What to watch out for: It’s a bit of a gray area, but making a decision about a prospective buyer based on social media “research” may get close to the line of discrimination, warns Reidenbach. “The buyer’s alma mater, vacation habits, club affi liations, or employment with a rival company are immaterial to whether they have met all of their contractual obligations, and should not be a reason to decide not to accept an off er on your house.” Buyers and renters are also protected by the Federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or the presence of children. BOTTOM LINE: LOOK YOUR BEST ONLINE All this Google talk might have gotten you thinking about how you can use your online footprint to boost your own appeal as a buyer or seller. The golden rule – The less you say the better. Scrubbing your social media pages of any information that could be used against you in negotiations is a good idea, says real estate agent Liane Jamason of Smith & Associates Real Estate in St. Petersburg, FL. So don’t vent about what a hassle it is to have your house on the market, or mention how desperate you are to buy in a certain school district. As is the case with all information you share online, what you say and post can—and will—be used against you! Info for this article was sourced from an article found on www.Realtor.com by Cathie Ericson. © 2018 BHH Affi liates, LLC. An independently owned and operated franchisee of BHH Affi liates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity.