Tuesday we discussed online listing services, today we are going to focus on the old fashioned, paper, street list.
Most listing services these days are online data bases that subscribers can access with a password or are spreadsheets that are emailed daily, listing all available units. However, every now and again I hear about someone purchasing a paper list of available apartments off of the street.
Now don’t get me wrong, a decade ago, paper lists were the way to go for potential renters attempting to avoid broker’s fees. Dozens of businesses allowed renters to come into their office and copy down the details on available units that might interest them. Many others simply typed a list of the available units and sold the list, hence the term “listing service.” The idea was that a renter would purchase a list on day one and if they hadn’t found an apartment at the end of the day, they could come back the next day and the day after, each time purchasing that day’s list, until they found an apartment.
Many paper listing services were very successful. Often a person who had worked as a listings manager at a real estate brokerage would set up his/her own list service on the side or even establish a business providing the general public and other small real estate offices with listings. But these services were operated like any other business with an actual address, a phone number to call if you had questions, and opening hours.
Unfortunately, there were also many scams. Generally scams involved “street lists” where people would respond to an ad in the Village Voice and show up at a certain location at a certain time, pay the charge (usually about $20.00), and be handed a list of available apartments. There was always a back story, which suggested that the lists were being sold so cheap because the seller worked at a real estate office and was tired of seeing agents charge so much for so little work. This played well with the idea of a) getting something for next to nothing and b) people wrongly believed that agents did “15 minutes of work for 15%”. People pretty quickly found that the addresses and contact details were either completely made up or had been taken out of the newspaper at various points and the units had long sense been rented. Of course when people came back for their money, the seller was long gone.
In any event, today I am going to forgo the PROS and CONS section. I can’t think of a single legitimate reason for anyone to purchase a list off the street. Firstly it is illegal to sell without either a Brokers license or an AVL. One of the requirements to have either license is that you have an actual address. So it would seem fishy to me that the seller isn’t using their address. Second, putting the apartment details online or on an email spreadsheet is so much faster, easier to update, and allows businesses to reach a much wider market.
I am not going to make a blanket statement that ALL street lists available today are scams. But I will say that I wouldn’t ever buy a street list and would never recommend anyone do so either.
Tomorrow we will talk about computer based bulletin boards such as Craig’s List.
See you tomorrow and stay out of the heat!
PS: Thanks guys for letting me know that comments weren’t showing up. It has been corrected now.
Most listing services these days are online data bases that subscribers can access with a password or are spreadsheets that are emailed daily, listing all available units. However, every now and again I hear about someone purchasing a paper list of available apartments off of the street.
Now don’t get me wrong, a decade ago, paper lists were the way to go for potential renters attempting to avoid broker’s fees. Dozens of businesses allowed renters to come into their office and copy down the details on available units that might interest them. Many others simply typed a list of the available units and sold the list, hence the term “listing service.” The idea was that a renter would purchase a list on day one and if they hadn’t found an apartment at the end of the day, they could come back the next day and the day after, each time purchasing that day’s list, until they found an apartment.
Many paper listing services were very successful. Often a person who had worked as a listings manager at a real estate brokerage would set up his/her own list service on the side or even establish a business providing the general public and other small real estate offices with listings. But these services were operated like any other business with an actual address, a phone number to call if you had questions, and opening hours.
Unfortunately, there were also many scams. Generally scams involved “street lists” where people would respond to an ad in the Village Voice and show up at a certain location at a certain time, pay the charge (usually about $20.00), and be handed a list of available apartments. There was always a back story, which suggested that the lists were being sold so cheap because the seller worked at a real estate office and was tired of seeing agents charge so much for so little work. This played well with the idea of a) getting something for next to nothing and b) people wrongly believed that agents did “15 minutes of work for 15%”. People pretty quickly found that the addresses and contact details were either completely made up or had been taken out of the newspaper at various points and the units had long sense been rented. Of course when people came back for their money, the seller was long gone.
In any event, today I am going to forgo the PROS and CONS section. I can’t think of a single legitimate reason for anyone to purchase a list off the street. Firstly it is illegal to sell without either a Brokers license or an AVL. One of the requirements to have either license is that you have an actual address. So it would seem fishy to me that the seller isn’t using their address. Second, putting the apartment details online or on an email spreadsheet is so much faster, easier to update, and allows businesses to reach a much wider market.
I am not going to make a blanket statement that ALL street lists available today are scams. But I will say that I wouldn’t ever buy a street list and would never recommend anyone do so either.
Tomorrow we will talk about computer based bulletin boards such as Craig’s List.
See you tomorrow and stay out of the heat!
PS: Thanks guys for letting me know that comments weren’t showing up. It has been corrected now.
1 comment:
Where do online listing services get their apartments? Carlise
ANSWER:Hi Carlise. It depends on the service. I am going to post about this today. Thanks for reading and contributing!
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