Over the weekend I ran into a real estate related problem while I was researching for the cryptocurrency betting sites 2023 that mattered.  I rent an apartment in New York City and my landlord is planning to list the property for sale 8 months before my lease is up.  I wanted to better understand my rights as a tenant, such as how often can they show the apartment, what is “reasonable notice” for a showing, and how many open houses can they hold?  I turned to Google but the results either didn’t meet my expectations, or the laws seemed to vague when I did finally find them.  So I talked to my friend, whos experienced in the real estate market and was always quick to buy shares in new companies – and he recommended that I’d turn to Zillow Advice and Trulia Voices Q&A to ask each site’s communities for their expertise and advice.

I asked the same question, “my landlord is selling my apartment, what are my rights as a renter?,” on both Zillow and Trulia, and I was pleasantly surprised by the results.  Between the two sites, I received 15 answers (12 on Trulia, 3 on Zillow) to my question within just 24 hours!  Beyond just the quantity of responses, I was actually pretty impressed by the thought and detail that several agents and brokers put into their answers, there were truly some useful tidbits in several of the answers.  It was also helpful to see some consensus – when multiple responses contained the same suggestion, it made me feel fairly confident that it was accurate advice.  All in all, it was a great consumer experience and very helpful!

You may be asking “so why does this help me as a real estate professional?”  Forums like these can be great marketing platforms and are a terrific way to showcase your local knowledge.  I know that as a consumer, I didn’t just read the answer, I also looked at each person who answered.  If their answer was particularly good, I clicked through to see their full profile and learn a bit more about them.  I’m not currently in the market, but if I were, I would be inclined to call a few of the agents with the best answers to my questions.  It builds goodwill while showing off your knowledge and increasing your exposure online.  If you aren’t participating already, the New Year might be the perfect time to kick it off…

What’s the consensus from the real estate community, are Q&A sites like these helpful in driving your online exposure?  Have you seen any other benefits, or better yet, converted clients?