I’ve discovered the next best thing since sliced bread. It’s called the internet.
Last week I started to get some strange looking splotches on my forehead and scalp. I have always had very clear skin so I had no idea where this was coming from. I asked one of my Realtor buddies to take a look and she thought they looked like bug bites. Hmmmm. Interesting. Being the internet dependent do-it-yourself Gen Xer that I am I used Google images to diagnose my splotches. Clearly they were bed bug bites. Looked just like them.
So, we loaded up every piece of bedding and laundry in the house on Saturday evening and took our daughter for her first trip ever to a laundromat. Exciting times for a 3 year old. Quarters to be put in slots, buttons to push, carts to crash around and new people to entertain. She loved it. Somehow the laundromat seems to have frayed my new sheets but that is another issue. I sent Dmitry out for some Benadryl ointment and tablets, because that is what I learned I was supposed to do on Wikipedia.
When I woke up today the splotches were bigger than ever and getting a little funny looking. My mother and husband insisted that I see a doctor. Of course, I KNEW they were overreacting. My bug bites just needed a few days to heal. But I went to the doctor just to humor them.
Guess what? I misdiagnosed myself. I have shingles, not bug bites. I am certainly glad I did not call a pest control company and have them treat the house. I read on the internet that the cost for bed bug treatments is $300 per room. And by the way, bed bugs do not come from dirty houses, just so you know. The doctor sent me to an opthamalogist to monitor my vision. Yes, a specialist was needed.
Now where do my boring medical ails fit in to the world of real estate. Actually they do, in a HUGE way.
Like my fellow Gen Xers, and our younger Gen Yers, I think I can do everything myself. I am a smart, educated and capable woman, after all. And I know how to Google.
I see people doing the same things every day when it comes to the sale of their home or the purchase of a new home. Not long ago I was working with an extremely smart young couple who were torn between two houses and looking for the better value. They kept coming back to a house that I felt was the worst value of the two. After a bit of prodding, I figured out where they were getting erroneous information about home values: my beloved internet. Zillow.com to be more precise. Once I understood their thought process, I was able to communicate the real issues to them. They NEVER could have figured this out with any of the abundant information available to them on the internet. As a Realtor specializing in Oakland County Michigan real estate, I happen to have a much better handle on home values than an automated valuation method. I just do.
A home seller contacted me recently. He has seen all of the comps for his neighborhood and has been tracking them on the internet for a year. Zillow gave him some crazy numbers. He is a smart guy and he told his wife that Zillow has great entertainment value but its not so great on the information it disseminates. When I asked him if he wanted me to list his home on Zillow he acknowledged that there were very few listings there so no buyers would be looking at a Zillow listing. He knows he needs someone to market his home aggressively and he feels that a Realtor can do this best.
This is not a Zillow bashing post. The internet offers tons of great information. But someone with EXPERTISE needs to interpret that data to make it relevant and useful. I don’t mind if anyone tries to sell their home on their own, without the assistance of a professional. It does not insult me in the least. I do feel that most likely the person is giving up a lot to save a little and will end up netting less in the end. The results are likely the same as my self diagnosis: a waste of time and money, a bit of inconvenience and a lot of frustration.
bed bug illustration by Mindfuldocumentation
Technorati Tags: oakland county real estate, zillow, home buyers, home sellers, do it yourself
________________________________________________________Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
Visit Website
Search for homes in Oakland County
________________________________________________________
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Christine 01.22.07 at 10:15 pm
OMG Maureen - That is horrible - (The shingles I mean) I hear they are very painful. I hope you feel better soon.
Toby 01.23.07 at 9:03 am
Get well soon Maureen!
Hope you feel better soon! And congratulations on a great post.
Kris Berg 01.23.07 at 10:48 am
Maureen,
As this season’s two-time recipient of the Martian Death Flu, best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Love the analogy, by the way. So true! The power of all of the information at our finger tips too often leaves us not knowing what we don’t know.
Jennifer Fivelsdal 01.24.07 at 9:49 am
Maureen you have my sympathy, I know people who have had shingles and my understanding is that it is extremely painful and can reoccur.
Nice Blog.
Carole C 01.24.07 at 12:30 pm
ok don’t think about the ‘reoccurring’ part just yet, just get better! This post is fun to read which is odd considering the topic lol. Ewww to that bug graphic
Get better soon!
Maureen McCabe 01.24.07 at 1:31 pm
I thought I had commented here previously. Maybe I did with something gorey about shingles or bedbugs and you deleted it. Or maybe not. Get well quick.
Sparky 01.24.07 at 3:34 pm
Only you could seque from Bed Bugs to something real estate! Sorry to hear about your shingles. Are they those nasty 30-year composition kind? Hope you’re doing better!
Marty Van Diest 01.24.07 at 5:41 pm
Ha! Very creative and very personal. I hope this isn’t a serious problem for you.
Good writing by the way and a great illustration of self-diagnosis compared to self-serve real estate.
Buckwheat 01.25.07 at 3:33 pm
No wonder I keep coming back, only you could pull off that literary left turn! I couldn’t figure out where you were going and then (wham) I am right in the middle of a real estate article. Beautiful job. I won’t forget this analogy any time soon.
Ines (from the RICK & INES team) 01.25.07 at 10:55 pm
Shingles! wow! I am so glad you went to the doctor. I hope you feel better soon. I did something similar not long ago. I had what looked like a rash (hives) on my torso after a showing and took benadryl thinking it was an allergic reaction. It ended up being ant bites (they had to biopsy one of the bites because they were so mean!). Since then I am extremely allergic to ants.
Sandra 01.26.07 at 10:23 pm
Oh my..someone in my family had shingles. I want to share a resource we found online ; just keep it in your arsenal; we use this advice. Of course nothing beats checking with the doctor and following their protocol first.
By the way the shingle scars went away and are undetectable now after following the doctor’s regime. For a while when he went outside he wore a jacket with the hood(his was on the side of the neck) Also no nerve pain. So there is hope.
http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcls-txt/t-prtcl-123.html
Kristal Kraft 02.03.07 at 12:18 am
Youch! What a way to have to go to the laundry mat! I would have done the same thing, so I can’t blame you. At least now you know what the problem is. The internet will never diagnose ailments, nor will Zillow list and sell houses. At least not to the informed and educated…
HelloWorld 04.28.07 at 6:16 am
Peace people
We love you
Brian Brunckhorst 06.20.07 at 12:30 pm
Shingles! … that sucks. Bed bugs are also a common problem for people. Here is a really good article with more info about them. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/bedbugs/ I own several Laundromats and always recommend that customers wash their bed linens monthly and their blankets at least twice a year, once in the spring when they are going to store them for the summer and once in the fall before use for the winter.