This isn't about real estate, rather just something that hit me while I was driving today in the rain -- when my phone rang. This post involved my cell phone and a car. I'm guessing most real estate folks have these things -- so there's my relevance.
The caller ID thing on cell phones suck! I pay for caller ID each month, but my cell phone only seems to know the number, never the name associated with it -- unless of course I have them in my phone address book. Seeing ten digits flash on a tiny screen, that's not caller ID.
I don't like hitting REDIAL just because someone called me. There are too many telemarketers just holding their breath I do just that to validate that I'm a live consumer willing to respond to a simple missed call.
I started with Google but that doesn't always work as phone tracking is not their biz. There are lots of others that hold data about unknown calls with direct experiences of call receivers. It's a simple premise: Allow people to create topics as phone numbers, then let anyone post about that number. Telemarketers will quickly have their intentions known to search engines. Here's one site that allows you to start a thread about a number -- or see if someone already has some info about the number. If you click the below URL you'll see what people are saying about 237-6959:
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-608-237-6959
Maybe not always accurate, sometimes no info at all. But the number that had called me five times in one day-- they had LOTS of comments about their evil telemarketing intentions. (i don't really mean they were evil... everyone has to make a living :)
Another one I liked:
numberinvestigator.com allowing you to do the same thing of punching in a number, but to not see what others think, more about the physical aspect. It also provides information about where the number was created (e.g., Ameritech, Verizon..) Gives some other stats such as population, housing units, square miles. Anway, I'm convinced it works because it found me:
http://numberinvestigator.com/phone/734-622-0231.html
And the best part about my listing:
Caller Type: No Complaints
Anyway, if you're curious about the an unknown call, give these a try. If you find better, please share!
Comments(3)