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> Although some real estate agents say the financial information it returns saves time when finding clients most likely to have the budget for the houses they’r

> Although some real estate agents say the financial information it returns saves time when finding clients most likely to have the budget for the houses they’re looking at, most agents and associations tout it primarily as a safety tool because it also supplies criminal records. > In addition to those records, the product — owned by the data broker red violet — also supplies a given individual’s address history; phone, vehicle and property records; bankruptcies; and liens and judgements, including foreclosure histories. > “It can be real creepy and you have to swear that you’re not going to use it in a wrong manner,” Hicks added, referring to Forewarn rules which say real estate agents can’t share data from the app publicly or with third parties, or use the app to pull information on non-professional contacts. And with ~1.5M Realtors in the US, working for ~1/3M real estate firms, you know there will only be a trivial number of cases where it this product is misused...right?

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mysterydip 2y ago
But they pinky promised to not misuse it!
criddell 2y ago
Where’s the tool for buyers? If I’m going to go to an empty home with a person I don’t really know, I’d like to know their criminal history. Before I sign a contract with a realtor, maybe it would make sense for me to know that my agent isn’t in financial trouble.
- kjkjadksj 2y ago
  Where do you draw the line though? So many situations in life where you are in a room with someone you don't really know. Eventually you have to go on blind faith for better or worse, because there's no time to vet each and every person you encounter.
  - bagels 2y ago
    Just need your AR glasses to facial recognition scan everyone in the room and feed you data about them.
- seadan83 2y ago
  There are some legit things to want to know about realtors. How many homes did they pressure people into whom then had various issues they needed to deal with? Or, did the realtor truly find a good fit for the buyer? How about conflicts of interest? As an anecdote, my neighbors recently were screwed by a realtor that pressured them into a place where they then needed to drop 150k on repairs (about 15% total value). That same realtor was pressuring our HOA president to literally make up information for the resale information so that the forms could be handed back to the realtor just a couple days sooner. Of course all liability would have been on the HOA president and not the realtor. With that said, a good history of what the realtor has sold before, & how the homebuyers felt about it would be a great tool..

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mysterydip 2y ago

But they pinky promised to not misuse it!

criddell 2y ago

Where’s the tool for buyers? If I’m going to go to an empty home with a person I don’t really know, I’d like to know their criminal history. Before I sign a contract with a realtor, maybe it would make sense for me to know that my agent isn’t in financial trouble.

kjkjadksj 2y ago
Where do you draw the line though? So many situations in life where you are in a room with someone you don't really know. Eventually you have to go on blind faith for better or worse, because there's no time to vet each and every person you encounter.
- bagels 2y ago
  Just need your AR glasses to facial recognition scan everyone in the room and feed you data about them.
seadan83 2y ago
There are some legit things to want to know about realtors. How many homes did they pressure people into whom then had various issues they needed to deal with? Or, did the realtor truly find a good fit for the buyer? How about conflicts of interest? As an anecdote, my neighbors recently were screwed by a realtor that pressured them into a place where they then needed to drop 150k on repairs (about 15% total value). That same realtor was pressuring our HOA president to literally make up information for the resale information so that the forms could be handed back to the realtor just a couple days sooner. Of course all liability would have been on the HOA president and not the realtor. With that said, a good history of what the realtor has sold before, & how the homebuyers felt about it would be a great tool..