Internet People

May 30, 2008 05:49

“You can’t trust those internet people” she said, with an air of caution.

I gave her a blank stare.

When I started the process of buying a home, I knew only two things regarding the subject:

Even though I’ve made two separate websites for Realtors in the last few years, the knowledge that home buying begins with a Realtor was foreign to me. So I turned to the internet, as I do with everything else.

I had a set of criteria for what I’d want in a home, but I needed to know if I could afford it, and whether I could get a loan for it.

I began looking through homes on Trulia that met my criteria, and I came up with a rough estimate for how much I’d need to borrow. I was familiar with that site because I generally keep up with “Web 2.0” sites, and I work at an apartment-finding website where we look at other implementations while deciding how to build ours.

As far as finding a loan, I resorted to a site I had seen advertising on television — Lending Tree. The concept of websites advertising on TV seems strange to me, but it apparently worked in this case, cause I entered my personal financial information into it, and found a lender almost immediately.

By this time, I had pretty much already found the house I wanted, judging from the description and the pictures, so it seemed to me that I satisfied all of the requirements to buying it. Little did I know that the pain was about to begin.

The Lending Tree connected me with a real estate company, Coldwell Banker, who matched me with a Realtor of their choosing. Unfortunately, this lady:

  1. never once pronounced my name right, despite many, many corrections
  2. repeatedly listed off properties other than the one I wanted, which were obviously out of my price range
  3. continuously tried to convince me to buy a new home, where she gets a much higher commission
  4. insisted that I let Coldwell Banker provide the loan, at a higher interest rate
  5. made suggestions in writing the contract that had to be overwritten multiple times
  6. insulted “internet people,” even after I told her that I work in the internet industry

Now, I normally don’t get offended by anything, and I never even really thought of myself as an internet person. But for some reason, when she spoke poorly of people on the internet, it really struck a nerve. The rest of the day, I was thinking about it, even going so far as to quoting to myself “Slimy? Mudhole? My home this is!”

The next day, rationality set in, and I could once again analyze things objectively. It occurred to me that she was right, in a way. You can’t, by default, trust people on the internet. There are so many scammers, cheaters, and marketers that you learn to watch yourself, and are forced to find ways of verifying the honesty of others. Another quote came to mind,* but this time it may have been more accurate: “You will never find the more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”

The thing I love the most about the internet is that it’s open and free. This freedom comes with a price, however, a big warning label telling users to watch themselves. But for those brave enough to delve into the spaceport, there are many people willing to help, and the rewards can be very beneficial — like finding the right house with a low interest rate mortgage.

Anyway... Hello, I’m Micah. Welcome to the neighborhood.

* I realize that having two gratuitous Star Wars quotes in one post puts me over the line, but I’m willing to accept the penalties.