It never fails... the property you need to photograph is the only home in the neighborhood with people standing in front of it. We've all been chased, yelled at, etc. when photographing people's homes for BPOs. Sometimes we wonder if it is worth it because of the danger we put ourselves in to do our jobs. People who are being foreclosed on can be emotional and have extreme reactions.

One safety tip I have for everyone doing BPOs is to GET YOUR CAR WINDOWS TINTED! When you take your pictures turn OFF your flash and take the pictures from right behind the tinted window. Unless you are a professional photographer you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in photo qualty between the photo from behind tint and a photo with the window down. The difference is minor.

Even if you are being watched by the occupants you can take your photos without them knowing. I have 35% tint on all my vehicles which is the legal limit in Massachusetts. It is not very dark but dark enough so that people can't really tell what I am doing. If your state allows it or you can get away with it a 20% tint is property the best option. If I am being watched by the occupant I'll rest the camera lense on the door with my right hand and snap the pictures. I've had people looking right at me while I was doing this and they have no idea. The tint allows observers to see shapes in the car but they can't really see what you are doing or what you look like.

If the occupant approaches your car you can drive away (not an option for me, I am there to get my photos), pick up your cell phone and act like you are on a phone call, pick up a map and pretend you are lost, or my personal approach which is to snap snap and get out of the neighborhood.

There are different types of tint available. I recommend tints that do not have metal in them because metallized tints will block your GPS, radar detector, cell phones, radio, etc. For non-metal tints you have three options. A dyed film, a ceramic film, or the new carbon films. Do not buy a dyed film. These are the films that turn purple. Your choice should be between ceramic and carbon films.

I have ceramic tint made by Formula One on 2 of my cars. It cost over $400.00 to tint each car. This is the absolute best no-compromise tint available. It is the most optically clear and has the best heat rejection. On my third car (my BPO car) I have a carbon based tint made by SunTek. This tint was only $150.00 installed. I would say it is 90% as good as the ceramic tint. The carbon based tints are fairly new so you may need to call around to several shops to find someone who installs this type of tint. Most window tint shops only install metallized film so finding a tinter that does ceramic or carbon film may require some effort.

PRICE REDUCED!

790 Bay St Taunton, MA 02780

Value Range Pricing: $275,000.00 - $285,000.00

There isn't a better deal in town with a Two Car Garage! Are you looking for 1 level home with a 2 car garage and almost and a full acre of land? You've found it right here.

CALL DON PARADIS, REALTY EXECUTIVES METRO SOUTH AT 508-837-9716 FOR A PRIVATE SHOWING.

I am not sure if it is just my computer (running a virus scan right now) but it looks like Agentsonline.net got hacked.

When you go to their site you'll notice some type of applet loads and it displays two different prompts saying you have Spyware and your computer is infected. The first box is a normal looking dialog box. The second screen is made to look like Norton anit-spyware displays.

After the dialog prompts run you get redirected to a website that try to sell you spyware blockers.

I have seen a virus like this in the past except it ran in the systray instead of a single website.

Has anyone else noticed this about agentsonline.net this morning? If anyone else gets these messages be very careful.

If you go to Agentsonline.net and see these dialogs I recommend running Adaware and a good virus scan immediately. Hopefully this will not involve having to format my drive and start over.

Please let me know if anyone else sees this when trying to go to agentsonline.net.

790 Bay Street Taunton, MA

Offered at $294,500.00

(Over $16,000.00 below Assessed Value!)

Two Car Attached Garage. Seller to install brand new roof prior to closing. Hardwood floors (oak) throughout main level (under carpeting). Large .88 acre lot near Lake Sabbatia. Attached two car garage measures 24 x 22 feet and is connected to the house via an 8 x 18 foot enclosed porch. Entertain your friends in the finished basement or enjoy summer bbqs in the spacious back yard. No well and septic system maintenance, this house is connected to town water and town sewer

1484 Sq/Feet, 3 beds, 1 bath, .88 Acres

For more information or to view this listing contact Don Paradis with Realty Executives Metro South at 508-837-9716.

211 American Legion Hwy. Westport, MA

Offered at $390,000.00

ONE YEAR HOME WARRANTY INCLUDED.

1800's style and charm with the comforts and conveniences of a modern home. Set on 1.37 acres in Westport this home features a 3 car detached garage, two sheds, and a large open field that could be used for parties, sports, or storing outdoor equipment or cars. Upgrades include full blown-in insulation, newer roof, 100 amp electric, and updated kitchen and bath. The home maintains original interior doors and hardware and a beehive fireplace from the 1800's.

2214 sq/ft., 3 beds, 1 bath, 1.37 acres

For a private showing call Don Paradis at 508-837-9716.

Click Here for Virtual Tour

SOLD IN LESS THAN 50 DAYS! 

100 Greenwoods Circle Taunton, MA

Offered at $280,000.00 - $299,000.00

 Move In Condition Ranch in a quite cul-de-sac near Segreganset Country Club and the Rehoboth and Dighton lines. An open floor plan and a spacious landscaped yard make this a perfect home for entertaining friends and family. The living room features a wood stove capable of heating the whole home to save on heating costs. Full basement features high ceilings allowing for finishing or the addition of an in-law apartment. Range Priced, Seller to consider offers between $280,000.00 and $299,000.00.

For more information or to view this property contact Don Paradis at 508-837-9716 or dparadis@southeastmassre.com.

Search Engine SPAM with a Million Dollar Budget

HomeGain, HouseValues, Homes.com etc. are all the top search engine results on Google for just about any <city name> real estate. These companies spend big dollars to make sure they they stay at the top of Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. It is almost impossible for sites with valuable content to place well in the search results because the million dollar equivalent of SPAM is clogging up the search results. This prevents consumers from easily getting the information they are looking for and puts up unnecessary walls between service providers and consumers.

HomeGain Buyer Link

One of the more potentially misleading lead schemes is HomeGain's Buyer Link. HomeGain BuyerLink is a program where HomeGain redirects website traffic from their website to real estate agent websites for a pay-per-click fee. The HomeGain site shows up at the top of Google and advertises it's self as a one stop resource for real estate consumers where they can search for homes and find information about listing their home for sale. The truth is, the site has very little original content of their own, the site uses what could be considered misleading techniques to draw in the consumer The only local content they have is the real estate agent websites they send consumers to for a fee.

Consumers want to look for homes on the internet. The HomeGain site advertises that you can search for homes. Consumers click on the search for homes button, then they click on their state, then their county, and finally they click on the town they are interested in. Suddenly, the consumer finds themselve on a completely different website, a real estate agent's IDX search page.

How can the consumer not help but feel deceived at this point? HomeGain shows up in Google (who is supposed to have the most relevant search results) and they navigate through HomeGain's site thinking that HomeGain will allow them to search for homes. Instead they are redirected to a real estate agent's site that they should have been able to go to directly from Google had HomeGain not been there clogging up the search results. This is nothing short of SPAM. HomeGain has no content of their own. They are hijacking the real estate agent's website content and listing search functions and selling them back to agents at $0.75 - $1.50 per click.

What Consumers Can Do

Look for sites with LOCAL content. The lead selling companies spend lots of money to trick you into using their sites. Once they have you on their website they turn around and sell your information to real estate agents. This makes the cost of doing business go up for everyone and puts the consumer in the position of not being able to easily find good local content and information about real estate. Instead they get stuck in a link maze that eventually leads to someone who paid for the traffic. Look a little deeper in the search results to find valuable local sites that won't sell your information to the highest bidder.

What Real Estate Agents Can Do

Stop using the Lead Sellers and Middlemen immediately. You are hurting yourself and hurting your customers when you give these companies money. Middleman companies with million dollar budgets will do nothing but drive up the cost of buying and selling real estate and make buying and selling real estate more stressful and confusing for the customer. Do not feed into their business model. It may be nice in the short term if you are getting decent leads from these sources but I hope that you are in this business for the long term. If these companies keep getting bigger it will be almost impossible for individual agents and small brokerages to do business on the internet.

It is time to put the middlemen and lead sellers out of business.

I hope that home buyers and sellers are not depending on Zillow "Zestimates" to price their homes. I was checking out Zillow and I noticed how very far off all of the results in Massachusetts seem to be. Out of curiousity I did a little test.

Here is a list of a few homes (selected at random) that sold today and yesterday in Bristol County Massachusetts and their corresponding "Zestimates".

 1254 Old Fall River Rd. Dartmouth, MA sold for $395,000.00. The Zestimate is $336,384.00. The Zestimate is $58,616.00 too LOW.

40 Gilbert Rd. Mansfield, MA sold for $333,000.00. The Zestimate is $402,626.00. The Zestimate is $69,626.00 too HIGH.

11 Davis St. Taunton, MA sold for $275,000.00. The Zestimate is $240,095. The Zestimate is $34,905 too LOW.

291 East St. Attleboro, MA sold for $342,000.00. The Zestimate is $396,385.00. The Zestimate is $54,385.00 too HIGH.

If you are buying or selling a home in Massachusetts, please please please do not put any stock in Zillow Zestimates. As you can see from the data Zillow is wildly innaccurate. Seek out a qualified professional to help you price a home you are buying or selling.