
Unidentified government agent picks up GAR members for appearance at Federal Court House, Bridgeport
In a post below I mentioned that the Greenwich Association of Realtors is trying to shut down information on home sales. Because that post also went on to include a discussion of the merits of 39 Patterson Avenue, I thought it’d be fun to move the GAR battle to a separate page. So here’s what I originally wrote:
The Greenwich Multiple Listing service is cutting off access to sold listings as soon as they close. That must seem like a good idea to the monopolists running the Greenwich Association of Realtors because now only members like myself will have access to this information, but it strikes me as a losing, and harmful battle. The future is transparency; in fact, until our new system was installed this past February, the future had arrived.
Diane Dutcher, GAR spokesman/apologist replied:
Once again Chris.. the board does not have a conspiracy going on. close prices are a matter of public record and , anyone that is really interested can find out the price of a closing. I don’t think we ever left on the closed homes on our system. For one thing, where do you stop? how much do you want to clog up the data base. If your client wants the close price you can set up an auto email for them to get that information when it happens. If you have questions, as I’ve said before, call me or the board or Flex. We are doing the best we can for the 1000 agents that are members and checking the facts before complaining to the public would be helpful. Diane Dutcher
Coldwell Banker
Our very own Francis X. Fudrucker then responded to Ms. Dutcher:
Diane;
Closed listings, along with the full listing sheets and (most) photos were available forever when we were grw.mlxchange.com. They are not available now. Are you saying that this is because of the amount of storage required? We seem to have lost storage since we lno longer store closeds since 1996 when we switched to Flex. In fact, in order to get functionality on Flex, we in our office here have had to pay Flex a premium just to get what we got from the other website. These are the facts as I see them, and I believe Chris is right that the less data we give to our clients, the harder it will be to earn their trust. I hope you aren’t saying that the clients can go on Zillow, so we should just let them do that. The Board does an exceptionally difficult job, but you can’t deny that the lack of the old listings inhibits transparency, and on this score Chirs is correct
Frank Farricker Lockwood and Mead Real Estate
I updated the original post:
In the comments below, Diane Dutcher, speaking for the GAR, defends its decision to hide information from the unwashed public. Francis Fudrucker answers her well, but here’s the nub of the GAR position, according to Dutcher:
Once again Chris.. the board does not have a conspiracy going on. close prices are a matter of public record and , anyone that is really interested can find out the price of a closing.
Diane seems astonished to think that anyone looking to buy or sell real estate would be curious to know market prices, and suggests that for those few freaks, those really interested, there’s always the town clerk’s office, where they can pore over the records one by one. Isn’t it so much easier for the great unwashed just to rely on and trust their local Realtor™, who has the expertise to advise you on value and is far better than you are at interrupting and understanding data? I thought so.
No wonder people despise real estate agents.
And that’s where we stand, for now.