And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

[indygeezer]

As most of you know I'm a realtor. A couple of months back I listed a near-eastside rental for sale. Six weeks into the 12 month listing contract the seller asks for the listing to be withdrawn....which my broker promptly did. Less than a week later he asked to be released from the contract for financial reasons. He stated I had done nothing wrong but it was merely business. I tried to talk him out of that course saying that when he was ready to re-list I was willing to sell it for him. He then became more intense and said he knew how to trash me on the internet and was going to do so. Again I tried to reason with him and finally said he'd have to speak to my broker as he held the contract and I had no authority to release it. My broker tried to work out a deal where we would release the contract via a buy-out and the guy freaked. (this arguement took place over 2-3 days and numerous emails)
THe upshot is, he has now submitted a very poor recommendation to Zillow...but get this, NOT ON HIS PROPERTY but purporting to be the owner of another property I had listed last year. He represents himself (never indicating who it really is) as being the owner of a property in New Palestine and talks about what a poor job I did. Since this review appeared I have spoken with the actual owner and he is submitting his own review to Zillow. I know of no way to prove the person who is mad at me submitted that review but if I could I'd try to take him to court or something.

[Bball]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

I have no idea what Zillow is but if Zillow allows people to post bad reviews that are made out of thin air then I'd think they should have a mechanism to immediately remove disputed reviews, or be liable for damages if they don't. Especially since you have the cooperation of the real property owner involved in the transaction.

I don't think it should be good enough just to have the countering claim posted by the real owner since to the viewing public (or whoever views Zillow) they have no way to know which claim to believe. Let alone might never see the countering claim since the negative review might stop them dead in their tracks and move on.

Of course also of importance, how important is Zillow?

[TinManJoshua]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

Zillow, Trulia, and even Realtor.com are basically garbage, especially the first two.

I just got my license in February. Mostly working with buyers to start I always, always reccomend them to stay away from zillow and trulia. They'll have properties marked as listings that aren't, are not accurate about whether or not a listed property is in contract facing contigencies, or simply closed in the last month. The realtors that pop up on the right on the screen to contact if you find one you like are snakes usually, and my fiance even thought she found us the perfect house on Zillow(zillow had it listed) I found out using our MLS that property closed 6 months before she searched for it.

Those sites don't care about accuracy, they only want page hits. They might as well be scam sites.

[graphic-er]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

As most of you know I'm a realtor. A couple of months back I listed a near-eastside rental for sale. Six weeks into the 12 month listing contract the seller asks for the listing to be withdrawn....which my broker promptly did. Less than a week later he asked to be released from the contract for financial reasons. He stated I had done nothing wrong but it was merely business. I tried to talk him out of that course saying that when he was ready to re-list I was willing to sell it for him. He then became more intense and said he knew how to trash me on the internet and was going to do so. Again I tried to reason with him and finally said he'd have to speak to my broker as he held the contract and I had no authority to release it. My broker tried to work out a deal where we would release the contract via a buy-out and the guy freaked. (this arguement took place over 2-3 days and numerous emails)
THe upshot is, he has now submitted a very poor recommendation to Zillow...but get this, NOT ON HIS PROPERTY but purporting to be the owner of another property I had listed last year. He represents himself (never indicating who it really is) as being the owner of a property in New Palestine and talks about what a poor job I did. Since this review appeared I have spoken with the actual owner and he is submitting his own review to Zillow. I know of no way to prove the person who is mad at me submitted that review but if I could I'd try to take him to court or something.

So you think he found a cheaper realtor to do business with? Just strange for somebody to ask out of a selling contract. I mean either you want to sell your house or you don't. Not sure I understand why he would have to buy out of his contract, if he decide to keep his house. I think that would **** most anybody off. But i guess that makes sense if he found another realtor, you broker would want some compensation for the trouble of listing him.

Unfortunately you work in an industry that is hard to gain trust in and people off the deep end in an instant thinking they have been swindled.

Probably your best way to combat this situation is to just post a follow up review on the Zillow site.

[indygeezer]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

So you think he found a cheaper realtor to do business with? Just strange for somebody to ask out of a selling contract. I mean either you want to sell your house or you don't. Not sure I understand why he would have to buy out of his contract, if he decide to keep his house. I think that would **** most anybody off. But i guess that makes sense if he found another realtor, you broker would want some compensation for the trouble of listing him.

Unfortunately you work in an industry that is hard to gain trust in and people off the deep end in an instant thinking they have been swindled.

Probably your best way to combat this situation is to just post a follow up review on the Zillow site.

Thanks I did that as has the actual owner. Of course now he has made an official complaint to our Board of Realtors but I can defend that easily.

[indygeezer]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

Zillow called this snake yesterday to ask for the offenders email. I explained that I couldn't prove he had written it but that the actual owner had filed a review. Today there is a review posting the actual address, but with factual inaccuracies....anyone wanna see the emails? Anyway, I'm not responding until this has been handled by the Board of Realtors and then I will respond with their findings.

[indygeezer]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

Well he struck again this weekend only this time he posted posing as the owner of a home he does not own and he used the actual owners name as his own. The actual owner is furious and is contacting Zillow Monday about the fraudulent use of her name. And because he used her name in a dummy email address she can't get in to make her own comments or to edit his.

Is there anyway to backtrack his message to show it was him doing it and is there any recourse open to either the real owner or myself?

[Hicks]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

This guy is an enormous dick.

As for tracking/documenting it, that would be up to the people running the website to cross-reference the IP addresses of the accounts making the comments. If he was smart enough to use a proxy that won't be enough, however.

[indygeezer]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

How did he get the real clients name and know that they used the wife's account for all email transactions, it was nowhere public....only in my mailbox. It's easy enough to get their names because it's public record.....but using her name for their email account????? Lucky guess?

[travmil]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

How did he get the real clients name and know that they used the wife's account for all email transactions, it was nowhere public....only in my mailbox. It's easy enough to get their names because it's public record.....but using her name for their email account????? Lucky guess?

Easy. Call your office or your broker and pretend to be you and ask them for it.

[indygeezer]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

Mmmmmm noooo it's a thought but I don't provide email addies of clients to ANYONE. That is personal and private information and unless the client first tells me to do it, it ain;t happening.

[indygeezer]

Re: And so now I'm being trashed on the Internet

The homeowner called to tell me that Zillow took their statements for review and to be turned over to a legal dept for possible legal action. If they succeed I assume that would help me if I decided to follow-up. Really though all I want is for this guy's review(s) to be taken down and him somehow "banned" from being able to post on Zillow ever again.
That and $60,000 ought to do it ;p

I have seen a dropoff in contacts since the reviews were posted. Definitely.