{"id":12175,"date":"2018-10-31T12:05:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T18:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virtuance.com\/?p=12175"},"modified":"2018-10-31T12:05:36","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T18:05:36","slug":"should-home-buyers-sellers-google-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/blog\/should-home-buyers-sellers-google-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Home Buyers and Sellers Google Each Other?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cathie Ericson | Source Realtor.com<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"03<\/a><\/p>\n

We Google that new restaurant down the block, that handyman we’re thinking of hiring, and certainly our prospective dates. These days, we don\u2019t think twice about Googling virtually everyone we meet. So it stands to reason that if you’re hoping to buy a home, you’d Google the seller\u2014or, if you’re selling, that you’d Google your prospective buyer, right?<\/p>\n

Well, maybe \u2026 or maybe not.<\/p>\n

As tempting as it may be to gather Internet intel on the person who’ll be sitting across from you at the closing\u00a0table<\/a>, this practice has its good\u00a0and<\/em>bad points. Here are the pros, cons, and pitfalls to watch out for when Googling a home buyer or seller.<\/p>\n

Why home buyers should Google sellers<\/h2>\n

Knowledge is power, and the information you can find through public records or social profiles can\u00a0give you a negotiating edge<\/a>, says\u00a0Bruce Ailion<\/strong>, a real estate agent and attorney at Re\/Max Town and Country in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

For example, you might find out that the buyer just got married or earned a major promotion, or that the sellers are going through a divorce or itching to move to another house they have already bought. Maybe they already have children in the school system or are jonesing for a shorter commute. Any of this background could clue you in to a buyer\u2019s or seller\u2019s pain points, timeline, or financial realities.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

What to watch out for<\/strong>:<\/h3>\n

Don’t automatically believe everything you read on social media. We know, it\u2019s hard not to, but that can backfire, says\u00a0Flavia Berys<\/strong>, real estate broker and attorney with DLA Piper in San Diego: “You can make a lot of guesses based on what you find in social media, but a lot of those guesses might be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let’s say you find out the seller is getting a divorce; you assume that means they\u2019re desperate to sell, so you can totally lowball them, right? Wrong. What if they are independently wealthy and not in a hurry? Or, what if another non-nosy buyer who doesn\u2019t know about the potential divorce offers market value, leaving your bid looking paltry by comparison?<\/p>\n

\"google_homesellers_realtor\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A lot of what you find online would be relevant if, say, you were interviewing someone for a job or considering dating them, but between sellers and buyers, there are few things on social media and web searches that will be pertinent to the home-buying process, Berys says.<\/p>\n

Why home sellers should Google buyers<\/h2>\n

Odds are, you want to leave your house in good hands, right? And if you like your neighbors, you’ll want to find someone nice for them to live next to, rather than saddling them with a new neighbor who loves to host his heavy metal band for late-night practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a seller with multiple attractive offers, you might tell yourself that you\u2019ll feel more comfortable with the transaction by poking around on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn to see what you can find out about the various potential buyers,”\u00a0notes\u00a0Scott Reidenbach<\/strong>, founding principal of\u00a0Reidenbach & Associates<\/a>\u00a0in Wayne, PA.<\/p>\n

What to watch out for<\/strong>: It\u2019s a bit of a gray area, but making a decision about a prospective buyer based on social media \u201cresearch\u201d may get close to the line of discrimination, warns Reidenbach. \u201cThe buyer\u2019s alma mater, vacation habits, club affiliations, or employment with a rival company,” he says, are “immaterial to whether they have met all of their contractual obligations, and should not be a reason to decide not to accept an offer on your house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buyers and renters are protected by the\u00a0federal Fair Housing Act,<\/a>\u00a0which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or the presence of children.<\/p>\n

Granted, discrimination would be exceedingly difficult to prove, says\u00a0Jeff Rohde<\/strong>, president and designated broker at J. Scott & Company in Phoenix. But it\u2019s a consideration.<\/p>\n

Let’s say you\u2019re selling in a closely knit condominium community, and the other owners do not want X as a neighbor. \u201cThey might decide to work together to ‘protect’ their association, investments, etc. \u2014 however they rationalize their actions \u2014 and a pattern might emerge,\u201d Rohde says. And that\u2019s illegal.<\/p>\n

Bottom line? Look your best online<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Scrubbing your social media pages of any information that could be used against you in negotiations is a good idea, says real estate agent\u00a0Liane Jamason<\/strong>\u00a0of Smith & Associates Real Estate in St. Petersburg, FL. So don\u2019t 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 info you share online, what you say can\u2014and will\u2014be used against you!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cathie Ericson | Source Realtor.com We Google that new restaurant down the block, that handyman we’re thinking of hiring, and certainly our prospective dates. These days, we don\u2019t think twice about Googling virtually everyone we meet. So it stands to reason that if you’re hoping to buy a home, you’d Google the seller\u2014or, if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14503,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14503"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12179,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12175\/revisions\/12179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}