Think Before You Tweet
| January 31, 2012
In the world of SmartPhones and SuperPhones, many of us have done it. We’ve used our cell phone to take a picture of something or someone and immediately posted it on Twitter or Facebook for the world to see. Maybe it’s something that made us laugh. Maybe it was a parking job so horrible you just had to share it with the world. Maybe it was a hideous room or basement in a house you were showing to a potential purchaser.
Raise your hand if you’ve quickly taken to Twitter to post a photo of a house you just toured. You’ve never done that? Well, some real estate industry professionals have. Now the question is, should they?
Sure, you can argue that an individual who places their house for sale and opens it to potential purchasers realizes their home will have visitors poking around. But that doesn’t mean a seller should have to anticipate that those touring their home will take pictures of it and post them online for the purpose of mocking them publicly. Imagine a seller stumbling across that photo you Tweeted of their house, with a mocking caption.
Of course there is no rule saying a real estate industry member (or a member of the public who is out touring houses) cannot do this. You won’t find a mention of it in the Real Estate Act or the Rules. But just because it doesn’t say you can’t do it—doesn’t mean you should do it.
Do you agree—why or why not?
