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Real Estate on the Internet:
Buyer (and Seller) Beware!

Continued from Tips 1 through 3

TIP 4:

Find out Who’s Who!

When you find yourself on a site with just one page with a few links only to get to another site with the same feature you may want to check out who is sending you on this wild goose chase. (The links all sound very promising but for some reason, don’t deliver but ask you for YOUR information — see Tip 1). You can find the owner of these sites by going to Internic or BetterWhoIs, two of many “who is?” websites and follow the instructions. The results are like having caller ID. For example, enter gnade.com on that site and you’ll find out that I have owned this domain name for over 10 years. Sometimes you have to dig a bit deeper to find the site owner’s identity. Searching on the site where a particular domain name has been registered, will often reveal that information. (Note: there are hundreds of domain name registrars on the web.)

Knowing who IS who will enable you to see through some web trickery. One of these tricks is to endorse yourself prentending you be someone else. Here are three ways by which this is done:

1 → Start a Blog site but don’t reveal your identity. Call other real estate agents incompetent and then recommend that ONE great agent! The link to that ONE great agent is the very one who is writing the Blog. This is called “vote for yourself early and often.”

2 → Start a website with a domain name like SeattlesBestAgents.com and make it look like several agents have banded together to give people the best of all worlds and the agent of their choice. Then ask the visitor for his/her information and submit the request for a TOP AGENT in the selected area. The unsuspecting visitor receives an email with the name of the TOP AGENT being the very one and ONLY one in control of the site. Another case of self-endorsement.

3 → Pretend to be totally impartial by starting a website with an official sounding name like OfficialStateGovernmentHousing.com and offer FREE classes for the First Time Buyer. Call yourself the “instructor” and solicit questions from visitors (get their email address). Then send them emails with the answers and the official Instructor-endorsed recommendation of the very best agent around: YOURSELF!

All this is perfectly legal. The question is this: if somebody is pretending to be someone they are not on the Web why would you trust that person as your agent?

Back to Tips 1 through 3.

Questions? Call me at 425-891-8213 or send me an email

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This website is not soliciting the owners of any homes currently listed on the NWMLS.

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