Trulia or false?
You'll forgive me for thinking that sites like Trulia exist only to make my life as an agent harder and my life as a blogger easier. Because the wealth of misinformation on these sites, all of it handed down to you, the Internet-Empowered Consumer, with the solemnity of Moses handing down the Ten Commandments, is a gold mine for any busy real estate commentator with a weekly deadline and a well-developed sense of the absurd.
It all started innocently enough, as these posts often do, when an online real estate newsletter informed me that Trulia has just named the San Jose metro area, also known as Silicon Valley, one of five national markets to watch for outsize home price appreciation in 2012. How can any market in California, a state with so many foreclosures, have an upside, this (national) newsletter asks (naively)? Well, it quotes Trulia, not every part of California was hit hard by foreclosures stop the presses! And furthermore, lack of inventory—it's not like you can build 100,000 new homes a year here—means that the Silicon Valley market will bounce back quickly where have I heard that before?! (here, maybe?). Wow! I thought. Trulia finally gets hip! Not only did I have a new post, I even had a catchy headline: Out of the mouths of fools and babes...
So I followed the newsletter's link to Trulia and I never did find that top-five article, partly because I couldn't find a search option, but mostly because Trulia dumped me on its Palo Alto page ("Homes and local scoop for the real estate obsessed") and I instantly stopped caring. Because what I found that January 2, 2012 told me I had a way better post to write.
For instance, "Today's local news feed" for Palo Alto gave me this useful information:
Yikes! Love that local scoop!
Oh, by the way, those 18 Palo Alto foreclosures? I only count 11. But if I click something else, I get 15, although now it says "Palo Alto Foreclosures—38 homes found". But if I click something else, I get 22. Anyway, it's good to know that anywhere from 11 to 22 Shallow Alto yuppies are getting their richly-deserved yuppie come-uppance. Let them move over and let real people, people who call Palo Alto Shallow Alto, have a chance to buy for pennies on the dollar. As soon as they stop obsessing on local scoop.
Except that 6 of those 11, 7 of those 15, and 16 of those 22 "Palo Alto foreclosures" are in East Palo Alto, not Palo Alto. Why? Because Trulia doesn't know the difference—and most folks would agree it's substantial—between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. Why not? Because Trulia's source for foreclosures, RealtyTrac, doesn't know the difference. Because whatever data aggregator RealtyTrac uses doesn't know the difference. Probably because East Palo Alto shares one of Palo Alto's zip codes, even though it's a separate city in a different county. Although anyone who knows local real estate can tell the difference between a Palo Alto and an East Palo Alto address. Which probably rules out most of the obsessed who depend on Trulia for their local scoop.
Yikes! I feel better-informed already!
And if I want to be even better-informed, I can post a real estate question, which will be answered by real-life real estate experts. Real estate wisdom, free for the asking, without any messy entanglements, like actually working with an agent.
Let's pick a question at random. "Janny", who describes him or herself as "both buyer and seller" in Palo Alto, has a question about "a real estate purchase tactic in this buyers [sic] market". Janny gets 12 thoughtful answers from 12 real estate professionals—none of whom tell her the bleedin' obvious: the Palo Alto market isn't a buyer's market. It's an extreme seller's market for single-family homes, and even Palo Alto condos are selling well if they're not hopelessly over-priced.
Why did 12 real estate professionals (actually 11; one posted her answer twice) not impart this useful information? Maybe because Janny got answers from real estate professionals in Seattle, Columbus OH, Orange County, Fairfax VA, San Francisco, San Jose, Louisville KY and Kitty Hawk NC. And one Palo Alto agent.
Now, if I'm a real estate professional living and working 2000 miles from Palo Alto, why am I answering questions about Palo Alto real estate? Do I really think the market in Columbus OH is the same as the market in Palo Alto CA? I guess I do. Do I really think that California's real estate regulations are the same as Ohio's, and that Palo Alto's local real estate customs are the same as Columbus's? I guess I do. And do I really think that posting answers to Palo Alto real estate questions is going to boost my business in Columbus OH? I guess I do. Or maybe I have so little to do in Columbus OH that I have time to "answer" questions about markets that might as well be on different planets.
Maybe some of these real estate professionals should take a critical look at their business plans. Maybe instead of "posting on Trulia" those plans should say "beaming real estate advice to outer space".
Come to think of it, maybe my original headline will still work.