Columbus Ohio real estate

Why do agents from outside an area answer questions?

This example is from Trulia Voices.  The same thing happens on the ActiveRain site, I understand. Answering out of area questions for consumers. Why?

Trulia Voices Question and Answer:

"Q. Safe/Not Safe?
Company I work for is relocating to Easton in Fall of 08. I'm window shopping for a home in the area bordered by 270 / Agler Road / Sunbury / and McCutcheon. Don't plan to buy till Fall/Winter 08. EVERYONE is telling me that this is not a safe neighborhood. I've tried to find the truth or falsehood of this by looking at Columbus Police website stats, but can't get a clear picture. Any suggestions or advice?"

Answers...

Most of the answers simply said real estate agents can't steer you to or from neighborhoods. Most directed the consumer back to the police for questions about neighborhood safety.  Here's a novel answer from a Dayton area real estate agent (REALTOR.):

"A. Another way to get an idea of the area is to look at the Ohio State Department of Education Report card for the school district. Check to see if the school is rated excellent, effective, contiuous improvement or ineffective. No one wants to admit it, but there is a high correlation between excellent schools and higher socioeconomic areas."

Ohio Department of Education Report Cards - for all school districts in the state. I thought that told you about schools... not safety of neighborhoods???

Why would a Dayton Ohio area real estate agent answer a question about a Columbus Ohio area neighborhood, in the first place?  Why would you answer a question about safety of a neighborhood with an answer about school district?  Bias against cities? Bias against large school districts?  Race?

Map cluster of red dots - the area? - I identified the 2007 sales for the area identified by the consumer. I believe the homes area all in the Columbus School District, the largest Central Ohio school district.

Code Word

Can the Trulia Voices Q. Person afford a home in a "higher socioeconomic" area?  She's asking about the "area bordered by 270 / Agler Road / Sunbury / and McCutcheon."  It's convenient to work! Easton is in the open area just north of the cluster of red dots. Perhaps she's searched and found she can afford homes in the area she'd identified.  She is not asking about school district or the "socio-econonic" situation of the residents of the area.... she's asking if the area she's identified is a safe neighborhood.  She's just asking people who are not qualified or able to answer her question. The can provide her the place to get her question answered, the police.

Bias against big city school district?  German Village, Victorian Village, Clintonville, West Albany, Downtown Columbus, MidTown East and other expensive neighborhoods are in the same school district as the area identified by the consumer. Safe?  Check with the Columbus police department.

The Columbus Police are the source of safety information about neighborhoods in the City of Columbus.   Columbus Division of Police - looks like the area identified by the consumer is in precinct 7 in Columbus. The map of Precinct 7 breaks it down further. I believe 72 (car number?) is the area the consumer identified. "7th Precinct Community Liaison Officer 645-1407 "

Realty Times on 'Housing Group Targets Steering Via Schools' by Blanche Evans says of the National Fair Housing Alliance:

The Alliance says there is a growing tendency by real estate agents to use schools as an excuse to avoid certain neighborhoods when what they are really doing is steering."

Of course she's in Dayton Ohio not Columbus Ohio...

NOTE: Any comments disparaging ANY school district will be deleted, write your own blog post if you want to say something nasty about a school district.   

 

What's Open Sunday in Columbus?

Best Open House List in Central Ohio

OK maybe I am a bit biased about the open house list on our Central Ohio Real Living website. I've blogged calling it the best open house list in Central Ohio on both of my other blogs, ColumbusBestBlog.com and Discover Columbus (which used to be called Columbus Best Blog) the best thing is kind of habit.

The link above is to the Real Living HER open house site through my Real Living site, MaureenMcCabe.com

Today, Friday January 25, 2008 the Real Living HER open house list says:

"There are 280 Open Houses available" That may go up today, Saturday and Sunday.

There was a national open house website started in Central Ohio a few years back called "What's Open Sunday." The Columbus Business First article said:

Real estate search engine lists Sunday open houses 12-13-2004

"Columbus entrepreneurs John Beckley and Jamie Davis recently launched www.whatsopensunday.com, a Web site where home buyers can preview open houses.

The search engine allows house hunters to choose communities and home features they're looking for among the houses agents list on the site, said Davis, the service's chief information officer. A one-time charge of $17.95 allows agents to include up to eight photos and details on each open house.

The effort had three listings during the weekend of Dec. 4-5, but Davis said momentum gained in coming months could lead to expanding the service in Ohio in 2005 and nationwide by 2008."

The link to the What's Open Sunday site seems to be dead today.

I don't believe it ever got off the ground outside Central Ohio, they weren't the only ones that had the idea.

A site called OhioBiz.com has a listing for What's Open Sunday with this information:

# of Employees: 1 to 4
Annual Est. Revenue: $500,000 - 1 Million

When I first read about What's Open Sunday I spazzed... I did not want to have to pay for open house ads (even just 18 dollars for a property), online but what if it was successful? I emailed the Columbus Business First article to my manager, Tom Holcombe. He (or maybe someone else?) had an idea which I thought was brilliant... if "What's Open Sunday" site became popular, our company , Real Living HER would offer free open house listings on our open house list (the Best Open House list in Columbus.)

My boss asked me if I thought agents at Keller Williams, the local Re/Max offices, Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and all of the small local real estate companies would put their open houses on a competitor's website. The Real Living HER webiste's Open House list, even if it was free? I think I wrote something that was the email version of shrugging my shoulders in my reply ... I did not know whether they would or not... remember this was back in 2005? Nope 2004. No Trulia... No Zillow... Everybody and his brother wanted to use real estate content on a site.

It obviously never had to happen. Real Living HER offering free ads on the brokerage open house list online. I used to email my boss weekly updates on how many local open houses the What's Open Sunday site had in Columbus. I don't think it ever got about 30 open houses, but I could be wrong. Sometimes I would lose interest in even checking how many houses were on the What's Open Sunday website. Surprisingly recently a Real Living HER agent was the only one advertising on the What's Open Sunday site, but he had a condo development advertised. I don't believe the What's Open Sunday site ever expanded anywhere outside Central Ohio.

OpenHouse.com

Recently Roberta Murphy a real estate agent with Villa Sotheby's International Realty (a Realogy brokerage?) in the San Diego area shared that Realogy, opened their site to everyone... OpenHouse.com Opening Door to All Brokers

On the OpenHouse.com site:

"OpenHouse.com has approximately 15,000 to 20,000 open house listings in markets across the nation on any given weekend. The easy-to-use site allows homebuyers to see schedules for open houses in their area, view detailed information about homes, print a route planner, request information or a private showing, and sign up for e-mail alerts.

Doing a search with a 50 mile radius from my offices 43085 ZIP code I find 98 open house listings on the Realogy site. Between the Real Living HER site and the OpenHouse.comi site that's a lot of Open Houses for Central Ohio home buyers.

Will the OpenHouse.com site someday beat the Real Living site in number of Open Houses in Central Ohio? Will I post open houses there? How do you shrug your shoulders in a blog?

This week Real Living announced they are going to put all of the Real Living listings on Zillow now... 

Zillow Welcome Real Living (and their 14,000 daily listings) 

I've had a "love/hate" make that a  "luke warm acceptance / not fond of " relationship with Zillow since before Zillow was public.  I have flip flopped a few times...

Don't make me defend Zillow! 

On TechCrunch I read an  8.5 to 9 million dollar Columbus Ohio home is Zestimated at 1.5 million dollars? Really?  That's seriously out of whack.  That seller has certainly  been "Zillowed" huh? 

A comment on a TechCrunch post...about Zillow 

# Erick  January 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am

I have a friend who's parents own one of the most expensive houses in Columbus OH. They are selling it for 8.5-9 million dollars. Zillow zestimates it at 1.5 or so. That's REALLY lame. I dont understand the issue since the comparibles in the area are around the 4 to 5 million dollars i believe so 1.5 just seems real off.

February 2006 - The very first day that Zillow ever was...  there were Real Living ads on Zillow.com.  Not ads for properties, Zillow did not have ads for properties at first.   The ads were ads for Real Living Franchise. Good exposure.

September 2006 - Real Living started added Zillows AVM - Zestimates to their sites.  Zillow and Real Living were partners.  

December 2006 Real Living pulled the Zillow AVM off the company websites, when Zillow announced they were adding listings to their site, making Zillow a place for consumers to search for homes for sale.

January 16, 2008 Real Living announced they are putting all of our listings on Zillow for better exposure for our sellers. Change... I set up an account on Zillow on January 16, 2008.

TechCrunch last week... Erick and the 8.5 to 9 million dollar home in Columbus that is Zestimated at 1.5 million dollars?  Read more about it here...  Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous  edit title changed to Zillow values $8.5 - $9 million home at $1.5 million?  

Look for Central Ohio homes priced at 5 million dollars and above here: Search Central Ohio Homes

It's not a long list. You can pull the Zestimates yourself on Zillow, for the two New Albany Ohio homes on the market priced over 7 million dollars.  The Zestimates are low compared to the list prices of the two homes priced over 5 million dollars in Central Ohio today, but neither is Zestimated at 1.5 million dollars. Maybe the Zestimate was 1.5 million  dollars and was corrected but the Zestimates now are close to the auditors tax values of the homes.   The homes are valued over 4 million dollars.  That's a lot of money in Central Ohio.

Erik's Columbus Ohio Zillow story is a great story... but it's wrong. I hate to defend Zillow!