Follow me on a click-through journey
(and trust me, you will want to read to the very end)…
So I get this email…
…titled “Three Steals Under 100k” and I see a listing in my very own state (albeit a 2.5 hour drive away) and out of curiosity, I click the word “Houston” to take me to this Trulia listing:
And then…
And I want to see more info, so I click the “See More Photos and Details” button which takes me here:
And then…
And I don’t find any specific information or available units from this condo site, so I click “View Website” in hopes I’d be sent to a builder site where I could see current inventory, and it takes me here:
And then…
I see that the starting price is as Trulia.com noted (under $100k) but still see no inventory no matter how hard I look, so I click “Enclave Homes by Royce” to get to the builder site so I can see inventory, but it takes me here:
And then…
So I’ve gotten nowhere, so I head here:
And then…
There are many results, so I click on the first one which looks like the actual builder website which takes me here:
And now…
I know I didn’t put any earnest money down, but I feel like Trulia owes me some sort of refund for my time, just sayin’… since Royce has earnestmoneyrefund@gmail.com do you think that I should see if something similar is offered and give moneyrefund@trulia.com a shot?
Laurie Ruettimann
December 4, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I received the same email and deleted it. I sensed it was a three-ring circus. Thanks for the confirmation!
Craig Barrett
December 4, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Wow. Read like a fly in the ointment until the the bottom fell out at the end.
Thomas Johnson
December 4, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I wonder if iNest and NCO get a refunds on that click through?
Frank O'Mahony
December 4, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Thanks for doing this! On the one hand it’s nice to see some aggressive home marketing. On the other, it’s a very shoddy piece of work by Trulia, which is normally better than that.
Lisa Sanderson
December 4, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Huh?
Joseph Ferrara.sellsius
December 4, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I got the same email but didn’t bother to take the bait. Thanks for saving me the time.
Beth
December 4, 2008 at 6:57 pm
OMG! So glad I wasn’t the only dork who did this. I was sincerely curious as to whether or not they were actually advertising homes in my area for under $100k. Silly me. Although typical internet geek, when the first click didn’t immediately take me to the $100k listings I got mad and quit.
teresa boardman
December 5, 2008 at 6:51 am
Our MLS has people who do nothing but make sure that the integrity of the data in the system is beyond reproach. There are checks and balances and fines for entering false or misleading information. On sites like Trulia anything can be entered. Same with Zillow and others.
Mack
December 5, 2008 at 6:52 am
I got the email and was going read it after my daily visit to Genius Land. Thanks for saving me the time Lani.
Jason Sandquist
December 5, 2008 at 7:40 am
I’m laughing right NOW! Somebody got had…
KimWood
December 5, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I have to say though…. this is why we get the calls from clients, “I saw where you could buy a 6,000 SF, Brand New house, in the diamond of neighborhoods on 30 acres for $100,000. Can you help me find that?”
urgh.
Paula Henry
December 6, 2008 at 8:30 am
I agree, Kim – a client calls and says, “hey, I saw this on the interenet”, so it must be true, right? Then,when we can’t find it, who looks bad?
Some great detectve work there, Lani!
Reggie from Cyberhomes
December 6, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Good detective work Lani! 🙂
Teresa you make a good point. That’s one of the reasons why we don’t except manually uploaded listings to Cyberhomes. Instead we partner with Brokers and MLS’s to get listing data–verified from its original source.
Jack Lindberg
December 14, 2008 at 9:05 pm
This is why companies like Trulia (and Zillow… have you ever read the story on their website about how they got started? An insult to our industry!) shouldn’t be supported by the industry. They have very little expertise in our industry and don’t get how it works. We have very little relevance with our tools. NAR needs to get with it…