Hi Deborah:

Thanks for the kind words. I do want to clarify one thing about BuySide Realty. I did not know this when I started looking at their site, but according to their website, they are in the states of California, Washington, Florida, Illinois, Virginia and Georgia. and trying to expand - which is easy to do as they don't require agents to ever be on the property or meet the clients from what I gathered.

That's why on my follow up posting, I cited the fact that California Department of Real Estate REQUIRES agents (both sides) to be present and perform visual inspection, which is difficult to do with VIRTUAL agents.

http://www.trulia.com/voices/Tech_Tips/Buy_side_vs_Redfin_re…

Sylvia

Thu Sep 13 2007, 16:45

Thanks for the welcome back Deborah and Sylvia! But I'm just dropping in for a second... Maureen's question really caught my eye (and gut)--I had to post! I should be back more regularly in another week or two when my outside project is complete. I miss Trulia and my fellow Trulians!

Wed Sep 12 2007, 22:40

Very nice to see you back Bridgette - I was worried about you there for a while :-)

Wed Sep 12 2007, 22:30

Welcome back Bridgette~~~~!

Wed Sep 12 2007, 22:29

Knowledge is power. Sometimes the strangest and most distant items have an unknown relationship. I do understand your thoughts Maureen, but I really don't mind out-of-the-area agent responses if they provide solid knowledge that is non-area defined and are "process" related. Even if 30% of the info is useful information, I will take it. Again, you never know what an agent will bring to the table that maybe a local agent that is on this forum hasn't been exposed to that is still applicable to the situation. Of course there are a few yahoos that perhaps shouldn't be saying/chiming in, but that is any question. Opinion and experience will always be up for scrutiny if not an experience you agree with or have gone through regardless of the area. Some people like it all mapped out others are looking for a more personalized feedback. Providing factual information and honest experiences are the most important to me and professionalism with client questions and our peers.

Wed Sep 12 2007, 22:27

Maureen,
I've been away from Trulia Voices for a while... I'm thoroughly distracted by an intense community service project... Regardless--never fear the thumbs for a relevant question or post! I do understand and share your concern. But I also have faith in the Trulia developers to find a way to correct this situation--they are always responsive to our questions and contributions (and I'm sure they spotted Jim's new rating system) and are more than willing to evolve with the community. I have answered questions out of my area with relevant information, and I do preface these with "I'm not familiar with your exact market" because the information provided MAY be contrary to local standards of practice (there are some strange idiosyncrasies in many markets). In all cases I did so because:

a) I felt I had something worthwhile to contribute
b) the question was unethical for a REALTOR to answer and would be ignored
c) the question was poorly phrased and not likely to garner a useful response (in this case I'll ask the poster some questions to clarify)
d) the question was hours old. By answering an older question, it brings it back to the "recent activity" forefront and that makes a relevant answer more likely for the OP.

I have collected a huge amount of thumbs down for these responses. Nevertheless, I will continue to post such because the OPs are here looking for answers. If they do not receive them in a timely manner, they will go elsewhere, and Trulia Voices will fail. I do not want to see that happen. I think it is an invaluable resource for the consumer (although definitely not a replacement for a local REALTOR) and I've had many OPs either post these sentiments, or email them to me directly.

Sort of off-topic: I do not even have a Trulia rating in my local area because the only local question was quasi-spam from another agent and I refuse to post to it. Trulia Voices will succeed based on the variety of quality voices it attracts, the rest will fall by the wayside. As more consumers post questions, and Trulia evolves, this issue will probably resolve itself. For the time being, I'm proud to call most of our regular posters colleagues and friends

Wed Sep 12 2007, 22:14

I have seen some of the best responses come from people who are not in the area the question is asked about. Following the thread, I for one would be happy to take the ratings of status based on answered questions out. Although you will probably always get short to the point answers from me as I don't have the energy to put into what some of you do. I am still passionate about how I feel on some of these matters. I have by-passed answering some questions because what I would have said had already been said several times, or because I had no information to offer. I have also made brief answers so I could be alerted to others answers when I was interested in finding out how others would respond to a specific question.

Thanks for bringing it up Maureen. It gives us something to think about.

Wed Sep 12 2007, 19:34

Ditto, Jeannette and Deborah; and to all the True Trulians who Truly :-) want to help consumers and are on a mission to elevate Trulia standing in the Real Estate community so it can become a site where consumers can come with confidence for quality answers and respectable Realtors for their needs!

Sylvia

Wed Sep 12 2007, 18:32

I have read Deborah's response and am in awe of her thorough, well thought, well presented thesis. It cuts to the heart and soul of the trulia experience - she is the quintesential broker/agent and I am proud to look at her as a colleague.

Thank you for the question Maureen - as this discussion was a long time coming. I myself conducted a little survey of the earlier trulia posters (or OP as they are lovingly being referred to) and I saw a great deal of change from then to now.... a very short period of time, I might add.

Truth be known - one person cannot answer all questions posed on trulia. I find myself deleting much more than I answer - especially if it has to do with specific addresses, or DOM stats for an area out of my state (county for that matter).

I do however, answer some generic questions - more as a solidarity move.

Our industry has been under fire for some time now & so many of us are working hard to elevate our profession to a level commensurate with our responsibilities & duties.

I believe it is imperative that anyone with genuine contribution - regardless of state - contribute to the pot of knowledge. I even welcome the comic relief; every now and again, because it shows that we are human.

I myself choose to answer with mostly layman terminology - or explain in lay terms what I believe the person asking might be looking for. Some are lengthy - some short, some even curt - but always from the heart.

I hope this exercise brings us all back to the table with open minds & open hearts. We are here for each other, just as much as we are for the consumer.

I am a trulia member - and proud to serve!

Wed Sep 12 2007, 18:21

Hi Diane,
I actually posted concurrently with you and was not addressing your recent post in my reply. But, I didn't take you comment as directed toward me. Thanks for the clarification just in case, though.
D

Wed Sep 12 2007, 17:11

Deborah,
Thanks for the compliment.
I have to add that I was in no way shape or form insinuating that because your count is high, you are one of the people who respond to either see their name/answer in print or to keep a response count high. I'm actually pretty amazed at the lenghths of your replies to the questions asked! Don't know how you consistently answer so thoroughly on so many topics. I'm sure just about everyone else would agree with me. You are not part of the problem.
By the way, Deborah and I are not related, just (most of the time) think alike! Thanks again!

Wed Sep 12 2007, 17:06

If Trulia responders were limited to answer only the questions in their given state, most OP (original posters) would not receive timely information, if at all. As Trulia grows, I think we will see a natural evolution that responders will pay primary attention to their own geographic areas. Until more mass is achieved, the participation of all is needed to fuel the growth of Trulia. I am far more bothered if I see an inaccurate answer of general info (i.e. a clearly inaccurate definition of procuring cause) than I am by a responder who provides insight regardless of their location.

Here is an example of positive contribution from outside the local area: Today, there was a thread on the various ways title could be held. The Q came from CA with excellent responses from CA RE Pros. A RE Pro from outside the area commented that the options of how title is held will vary from state to state. One could argue that the CA Pros answered the CA question, and that any input explaining that things are different in another state was extraneous and unnecessary. When looking at the big picture, public members surf and read Q’s and A’s on Trulia read threads from outside of their own state, and disclaimers and addendums calling attention to variances is a public benefit. Many public members read threads only and never comment or ask Q’s themselves. (We know this from blog readers who never participate on the blog, but call the blogger and ask for help, indicating they have been reading the blog for months.) A public member from outside of CA reading the thread might not know or even give the slightest thought to the fact that states govern how tittle is held. That additional comment made by the Trulian from outside of CA may alert those readers from outside of CA. In the big picture, there is more than just the OP and responder. If the person asking the Q and the responder exist in a vacuum, only their content matters. Since others may read the thread, let’s not forget them. BTW, I gave a TU to the Trulian mentioned in this paragraph.

I saw one of the very best regular contributors on Trulia answer a question about relo from Maryland to San Diego, and that Trulian is not from either MD or San Diego. Her answer was excellent. If she ignored the question, because it did specifically address those geographies, the OP, other readers and Trulia would have lost out on the insights shared. The same Trulian wrote a detailed post about BuySide Realty, even though she is in CA, and BuySide is in IL. Her analysis was detailed and comments quite meaningful. I gave her TU on both of these posts.

I welcome any Trulian to post responses to any NJ questions. In a recent thread, the OP (original poster) asked about comparing crime rates in NJ. Patrick from AZ provided a response, and Ute from CA provided a response. Not only did I welcome their additions, I gave both TU. I did not take the attitude that neither should respond because NJ has a handful of regular participants. On that note, let me say that NJ has a few very good regular responders on the Trulia board. Diane Glander frequently posts and her answers are consistently excellent. On rare occasion I might disagree with her. Sometimes she writes things that I didn’t think of, but definitely agree with her upon reading her responses. Although I think Diane is excellent, I find the other Trulians from outside the area whose contributions to NJ are both valuable and stimulating.

I am amazed at how frequently I see Trulians concerned with count. Although my count is high, I can assure you that my participation has zero, absolutely and completely nothing to do with count. I do have an agenda, but count is definitely not it. I find it worthless when a poster responds with, “Call a Realtor” as the sole content and advice. I suspect that type of post is for the goal of a count, but...so what. I actually find the uproar over this more disturbing than the action itself. In other words, the words spoken in protest can speak louder about the protester than the conduct of actions of the so-called offender.

Any Trulians, feel free to join any NJ threads! We need more mass and activity here! I see so many CA threads, but CA is always strong in early adoption, Trulia is based there, and it has a larger population. Yes, CA, I do like you (a lot!), but, I am a Jersey girl now. The more threads and responses NJ gets the better, so please chime in!

Wed Sep 12 2007, 16:59

I agree, but also concur with what Sylvia had to say about some questions being generic, even with a location given.
Here's the problem as I see it. As long as Trulia has a system that counts answers (why do they do that anyway?) we will have irrelevant answers from people just looking to increase their stats. If there was no counting of answers, do you really think these people would respond? Or, maybe, they just like to see their answers in print?
This issue has now surfaced on it's own, but I believe is related to the thumbs down issue. Let's stop counting. I bet the quality of the answers would improve!

Wed Sep 12 2007, 16:36

Hi Maureen:

I agree with you to some extent. If the person asks for information on specific property, location, market condition, feature, characteristic about a certain town, city or county, then I won't answer that.

If the person ask something that's generic in nature, even if they have a location on the subject line and if the question is something I can contribute to, then I will answer that - I just answered two questions today, one about where in the USA has good tennis coaching, the location is Alabama, but the question itself says which place in USA; the second one is somebody wants to know how to budget a relocation from one place to the other. I had good answers for both and are both fitting, so I answered both. I even answered one about termite inspection and perhaps the one about buyer agent order inspections – can’t quite remember if the customer coded location or not, but they are generic questions.

I answered a question, more location specific, not where I am but I lived there before. I waited a few days, nobody answered, so I answered. I feel that since I know something about it, it’s better to not let the subject drop and the customer waiting for days and never come back again.

One thing I mentioned before is that for a lot of real estate questions, there is timing issue in there. If the question was an old question from May or June, and the question is something that needed answer that day, I don’t know why people go in and answer that question three months later. It is really irrelevant by now.

I think the bottom line on Trulia and everything we do in life is self respect, respect for others, both to customers and fellow real estate pros, and professionalism. I think the majority are this way, but you have just a few who still does whatever they wan to do regardless of the voice from the majority. That’s the unfortunate thing.

Sylvia

Wed Sep 12 2007, 16:03

I missed Jim's point system and just read it. He's a genius. Of course, I think anyone who doesn't have to count on their fingers is pretty smart... lol

Wed Sep 12 2007, 15:07

Fear not the Thumbmonster, Maureen.
Way to go, It takes a lot of confidence to address this issue.

Do we really have a problem?
Everyone knows what is going on.
Everyone knows who is just answering to answer.
The clients can read the quality of the answer, and they can see where the agent is located. They know.

Real estate is a numbers game. So is Trulia, the way the point system is set up.

The quality of answer is everything. Not the quanity.

Jim Walker came up with new way of calculating points. I think he calls it the "Walker point system/ UTBA"
Below is a link.

Hopefully Trulia will begin using this system and we will all live Happily ever after, Especially Jim he will be receiving royalty payments from Trulia.

Great question.

Wed Sep 12 2007, 15:01

While Real Estate is local and some of these questions may be geared towards specific answers about specific zip codes, many questions are more generic. In my specific case, my goal is to demonstrate how I think and how I approach problems so that anyone who reads my responses will get a "feel" about the topic at hand and develop a perception as to what type of agent I am. I would hope that anyone who has a serious question about a Real Estate related matter would talk to a lawyer, an agent or someone they trust rather than waiting for a response in this forum but that is just my opinion. I view these questions as our opportunity to "showcase" our expertise rather than giving direct advice about a specific situation.

Wed Sep 12 2007, 14:46