Why don't we post our pending listings on Facebook?
CAMERON WARD
If you take a look at most real estate firm’s website or Facebook page, you’ll see posts about their home listings that are under contract. In a competitive digital marketing world, it’s important to show your followers and clients that you have the tools, skills and experience to sell homes. Many consumers and real estate agents alike don’t take into consideration the potentially disastrous consequences of advertising the pending status of a home when it goes under contract. Here are a few reasons why The Alms Group never posts or publishes our pending listings:
Pending listing posts open the door for wire fraud.
Wire fraud in the US and across the globe is a growing criminal enterprise. According to the National Association of Realtors “Scams specifically directed at the real estate sector rose 1,100 percent from 2015 to 2017”*. With billions of dollars being stolen globally by wire fraud scams, this is the biggest criminal issue currently facing real estate agents, title companies and lenders.
When criminals attempt or complete wire fraud scams, they typically camp out on real estate firms’ website or Facebook page to find vulnerable transactions. Pending listing posts give scammers the information they need to facilitate theft by wire fraud. Instead of the need to hack into a real estate firms’ email and search for transaction details, they know exactly what agent and what property to target when they see pending listing posts. From there, scammers will infiltrate email where they can find sales contracts and contact information, so they can send communication with fake wire instructions directly to buyers and sellers. They don’t have to search hard for their next victim, they can just check a real estate firms’ weekly pending listing posts to know which transactions to target.
Pending listing posts greatly reduce negotiating power if that contract falls through.
When a home goes under contract, many steps start to happen including inspections, appraisals, financing approvals and more. If consumers see that a home is under contract, they rarely give it a second look. Should that home go back on the market due to a buyer’s financing falling through, inspection issues, etc., the buyer pool is diminished. While most homes that go pending will close, many do not and your agent has reduced the chance of getting a solid second contract on your home if the market has already been lead to believe that it is sold and closed.
Pending listing posts don’t accurately reflect the complete real estate market.
When our team prices homes, they look at sold comparable homes to establish market values and trends. Pending listings don’t reflect sold prices or changes in contract terms based on renegotiations. As mentioned above, some pending sales don’t close, so basing your opinion of the current market conditions on pending listings gives you an incomplete picture. Additionally, choosing a real estate professional based on their ability to get your home closed is much more important than their ability to get your home under contract.
If you are thinking about selling your home this spring, contact The Alms Group to find out how all of our business practices, including what we choose NOT to share on Facebook, is part of a comprehensive strategy to best serve each and every one of our clients.
