Neighborhood Pools Don't Count

No matter what industry you're in, there are undoubtedly little pet peeves you pick up along the way.  It might be things the weird guy in your office does or maybe its demanding customers.  For me, it's something that others in the real estate biz do that ends up effecting my clients.  And frankly, it makes us all look bad.

My pet peeve is when Oklahoma Realtors don't paint an accurate picture of their listing on MLS.  Especially about pools.  Private pools aren't as common in Oklahoma as they are in other parts of the country.  Like, when I was growing up in Phoenix, every house had a pool.  Not having one would have been akin to not having air conditioning!  But here in Oklahoma, not the case.  Many neighborhoods have pools.  But not that many individual homes have them.

When entering a listing into the OKC MLS, we have two available (and searchable) fields related to pools.  The first is a simple yes or no question.  Is there or isn't there a pool.  The second field relates to the type of pool.  Is it in-ground, above ground, concrete, vinyl lined, or fiberglass.  Far too often I find Realtors answering yes to the first question when the neighborhood has a pool but the home in question does not.

This becomes a problem and pet peeve for me when it effects my clients.  When I have folks looking specifically for a home with a pool, they usually mean a pool in the backyard, not down the street by the club house.

When I have a buyer looking for one, I can manipulate their home search to only display listings that have a YES to the pool question.  These listings are then sent to my clients.  Because pools aren't super common in our area, it can be a big deal when one hits the market.  Especially this time of year.  When they get the new listing notification, they open the listing pictures and details right away.  Boy are they disappointed to find there really isn't a pool there.  Or even worse, they think I haven't listened to them.

If you're searching for an Oklahoma home with a pool in the backyard and occasionally receive listings that really just have a neighborhood pool, I'm sorry.  Unfortunately, some of my colleagues don't know that a neighborhood pool doesn't count.

Talk to you soon!