Some real estate agents in the U.S. are choosing not to list the properties they are marketing on national aggregation websites like Zillow.com and Trulia.com.

Though the sites garner significant traffic — Zillow attracted 32 million visitors in January — the Fiscal Times reported brokerages have grown tired of the inaccurate information the sites unwittingly purvey. They complain that Zillow and Trulia frequently publish incorrect property details, maintain duplicate listings, fail to update the sales status of a property and allow agents to pay to put their name and photo next to listings that aren’t necessarily their own. [more]

From left: Barbara Fox, David Schlamm

Real estate brokers are becoming increasingly cautious with their listing descriptions to comply with federal, state and city fair housing laws, the New York Times reported. There is no official Department of Housing and Urban Development list of acceptable and unacceptable terms, and at one time that encouraged so much caution that the agency actually sent a list of phrases that were acceptable, including “bachelor apartment.” But as social sensitivities heighten, some brokers, including David Schlamm, president of City Connections, are wary of the phrases “bachelor pad,” “fisherman’s retreat” and “traditional neighborhood.” Barbara Fox of Fox Residential Group even refers to “family” — as in, a house is “perfect for families” — as the “f” word. [more]

From the March issue: It has long been a cardinal rule in residential real estate in New York that those who are running the show and managing the office don’t actually sell apartments.

While they must be licensed to do so, the thinking goes that managers are there to help train their agents, help their agents navigate deals, and divvy up any leads that come in.

“Managers do not sell,” but instead make their money from salaries and bonuses, said Michael Adorno, a spokesperson for the Corcoran Group, about the policy at his firm, which resembles those of other large New York City brokerages. [more]

From the May issue: This past month, a real estate broker
advertised that he would dress up as the Incredible Hulk at a Sunday
open house, hoping an appearance by the muscle-bound monster would lure
buyers to his listing for a Midtown condo. He even went so far as to
place signs around the unit warning that lowball offers would cause the
Hulk to get angry. The stunt may have been a joke, but the sentiment
was real. This spring, despite a flurry of activity by
bargain-hunting home-seekers, deals are still rare as buyers and
sellers exhibit contradictory expectations. “For every one seller who
thinks pricing will be going up soon, I have 100 buyers telling me the
opposite,” said Paul Purcell, co-founder of Charles Rutenberg
Realty. [more]

The nation’s 900 multiple listing services, or M.L.S.’s, are loosening
up restrictions on their listings. For years, they didn’t let Web sites
display M.L.S. listings along with properties not represented by
real estate agents, such as for-sale-by-owner homes and bank
foreclosures. Now M.L.S. data is flowing more freely to sites like
Zillow, Terabitz, ZipRealty and Redfin. In Massachusetts, the state’s
M.L.S. Property Information Network recently agreed to feed data
straight to Zillow, although it lists for-sale-by-owner homes and will
soon add foreclosure listings. Many in the industry are fighting the
changes, and some real estate sites, such as Trulia, fear that offering
for-sale-by-owner listings would cause brokers to stop listing their
properties. [more]