I haven't been on a whole lot of real estate forums and so the other day while surfing the web I stumbled across the Zillow forum. I am not sure if any of you guys have made it over there but damn! Its a bunch of blood thristy, na saying, pissed out, grumpy folks. Its no wander housing prices are going down and buyers are few and far between. I always try to be positive and I am telling you... You'll get flamed by at least 30 members if you mentioned even one good aspect of the real estate market or how now is an ok time to buy if you have a 5 year plan, money down,stable income and good credit! Anyways I believe I'll stick around here, just want to for warn everyone before you venture to far.

I don't go on those kinds of forums usually. No sense in being abused or aggravated.

I don't go to Craigslist's housing forum for this very reason. It is very negative and anti-Realtor.

There is plenty of gloom out there, no need to deliberately subject yourself to it.

Oh my god! I went and checked it out after I read you rpost and you aint kidding! Way too much hatred over there. Many of the posters have no idea what they are talking about either. They just hate.

i checked it out too. i was going to cut and paste some of the stuff but i figured anyone who wanted to see it could just go there. lol...it is to funny. its like a fsbo forum!

Well I didn't go to get tourched, I went sent some answer to some idx link problems. Should have just called my it guy... Want go back for sure, I had even noticed a few agents on there talking the same trash! But whatever! I guess you can't help everyone!

kind of sounds like whats going on at the a2s forum as well..

I could find little of any real value on that forum. Reads like a bunch of arm chair agents who haven't a clue of what they speak. Can't imagine why a real estate agent would even post there. Let them have their pitty party and when Zillow writes me again with an invitation, I'll gladly provide the same feedback.

I must have been reading the zillow forum in the wrong place, but I didn't see that much hate. Actually quite a few people recommending Realtors. Maybe those were Realtors recommending Realtors though. he he. Though I did see a post from some fsbo angry that Realtors steer their buyers away from Fsbos. That isn't entirely true. Most of the time Realtors don't know that the FSBOs are even on the market to steer their buyers away from.

The behavior of people in online forums is a pretty sad reflection of the society we live in. There are many trolls on every forum, just the Zillow and CL housing forums are very very bad. Some people on Zillow equate how many posts they have made to how much of an expert they are. I only read the CL housing forum for laughs and vist Zillow forums rarely because of the general hatred towards anyone in RE.

Both of these forums are actually doing the public a disservice because of the constant bickering, misrepresentations and out and out lies. A buyer/seller with a legitimate question will more than likely not get a good answer to any question. The best they can hope for is an agent hoping to get their info to use as a referral, in other words, an agent not actually trying to be helpful but put money into their pockets. Forums are made to share advice & ask/answer questions but too many use some RE forums as a lead generation tool.

I think that including your website and promotional material in your signature is okay as long as you are contributing to the forum by making useful posts, but those other forums won’t even allow that.

I don't like zillow or trulia. Craigslist can be anti-agent. I've gotten several angry emails about craigslist being for people not agents, but I blow them off. I do what's good for my clients and so long as the terms of service say agents can post, I will. Zillow and trulia are bad because you work hard to help people and contribute to the forum, but they don't pass any link juice and can be anti-agent.

Joe