Hi all…Yesterday I checked out buyowner.com and saved some houses as “favorites” to look at later on. That is all I did. I didn’t contact anyone.
But this morning I got an email from a lady saying she had gotten my email address from her ad and wanted to know if I was interested in the property, was I pre-approved, give her a call, etc. I checked the name and property code and sure enough she was one of the houses listed in the favorites.
The fact that she is contacting people might be an indication that she’s not getting much incoming interest. So that could be a sign of motivation, except her listing was at the bottom with the newest listings last, in which case it is probably a sign of impatience. But I don’t like the fact that just because I bookmarked her house, she gets my contact information. I want to be able to look at the details, compare, do some detective work, etc. That way I am not wasting anyone’s time.
Has anyone else had this experience? Do you get emails from many listers? I marked about 100 houses to look at. I don’t want them all emailing me until I’m ready to talk to them! :o Maybe I should cancel my account and sign up with a garbage account? ???
I can not believe you are upset about motivated sellers calling you. I do not know how their system works as far as bookmarking but I am sure not all 100 will call you. Maybe you should bookmark all of them and get two or three or motivated ones to call. You will probably have a deal under contract by the time you analyze 100 to death.
Ted with all due respect I was looking for information as to how this particular situation works with buyowner.com, not your personal opinion on something you admittedly don’t know about.
But to ease your incredulity over my concerns, allow me to state that of course I don’t mind having motivated sellers contact me. I would prefer, however, that I’m made aware that the seller is getting my contact information.
And since I am new at this, I prefer to at least read the property description and compare it to the other ones in my search before contacting the seller. If that is analyzing it to death then guilty as charged. When I am more experienced that will no doubt change.
Deborah…when I join any wesites, or anything that asks for my email…if I am not 100% sure about the website, or not sure about their policies, I use a “dummy” email address at the start. Then once I am sure things are ok, I will simply change the dummy address to one of my regular email addresses. This works without fail.
I know it doesn’t have anything directly to do with your post, but I figured it might help anyways. I NEVER give my email address out until I am sure about the above. I learned the hard way about how certain websites handle email addresses. I have been slammed with spam, had email addresses sold to spammers, etc. Using a dummy address at the start doesn’t have any drawbacks. If it is is a bad website with regards to the above, no loss…it’s a dummy address. If after a certain time frame it is ok, then simply change the address to one of oyur good ones.
Good luck. And your post was very educational. We have similar companies here, and I might just take a peek since it doesn’t cost anything.
Tony thanks that is a great idea. I should have done that in the first place. :
I just set up a dummy address at a site called “mail.com”. It even has some really professional sounding extensions that you can use (I like @consultant.com). I am going to get rid of my current buyowner.com account and re-register with the new one. That way even if it is standard for them to let people “see” you, then they can send crap to that address instead.
Now I know to be more careful and read all the fine print closely to see what I am getting into.
