Dubya-dubya

As regular readers here now, we are engaged in the process of trying to sell our house. We picked a very bad time to do that; heading into winter and a softening market in general, and we've had far more expenses "fixing up" than we expected. It's been a "trying" experience in many ways.

As is common now, the real estate agent put up a redirect for 37harold.jhurwitz.com. He said a lot of business comes through the web nowadays, and I believe it: people search MLS listings, compare prices and features. The web is obviously a better way to shop for real estate.

But I don't think the "37harold.jhurwitz.com" helps a bit.

That web address is on the sign outside our house, and I've sent it out to family and friends. The ones I sent by email were no problem, but several people who read the address off the sign told me "It doesn't work".

Doesn't work? Of course it works. They must have typed it wrong.

One of the bad typists was my daughter. "I know where you live, and I know how to spell Hurwitz. It doesn't work", she insisted.

I suddenly realized what the problem was. She had to be typing "www.37harold.jhurwitz.com". I asked her if that was the case, and she said "Of course. Don't you HAVE to type 'www'?"

Long, deep sigh from Dad. She's married to a tech guy, so I'll let him explain it to her. Of course the real estate agents could make the "www" form work also, but I knew it was pointless to mention it to them. They farm this out to other people, and it's probably all php driven and nobody involved understands anything.

By the way, if you ever sell property this way, don't take your own pictures unless you really are an expert photographer. Our agent hired a pro for our pictures, and the difference in quality really shows. A lot of other houses I look at in MLS have amateur photos that just don't look good. Spend the money on a professional, it's worth it.

And if you get one of these street number redirects, be prepared for people telling you it doesn't work. Don't bother trying to explain that "www" is just a machine name; that will just get you glazed looks. Just tell them not to type "www". They'll think that's extremely odd, but at least they'll get to see your listing.

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Tue Dec 6 15:29:06 2005: Subject:   anonymous


Interesting pictures. On the outside, there appears to be a modest sized home of indeterminate age. On the inside, it looks much larger, and warm and inviting. As you said, photography is everything. I hope you get top dollar for the place.



Fri Dec 9 21:41:03 2005: Subject:   MikeHostetler


Yeah, that's stupid that 'www' doesn't work -- it's an easy thing to fix, but only if you have a clue.

We bought our first house by seeing it on the web -- www.realtor.com is a great place to browse MLS listings. And I'm glad that you are using a realtor -- you can sometime make more money with a realtor then "for sale by owner" and sometimes even more.

Good luck selling the house! It looks nice.



Sat Dec 10 00:04:22 2005: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Well, we did accept an offer, so if everything goes as planned, we'll be out of here Dec 23rd.



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