Is it dirty or is it just dirt?  Is it a fascination or just simple pleasure? Can it be tasteful or do you prefer the raunchy kind?  It almost seems like people just can't get enough of it.  I'm talking about the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . real estate porn industry and we may be the purveyors of this new type of ***.

     It seems like there is more interest in www.openhouses.com than www.open blouses.com.  I'm talking about the information available to consumers about real estate and our business in all forms of media.  It has gone from the the hidden, back door alley ways of the past, where only professionals had the goods, to a multi-billion dollar industry.  The public is insatiable, it seems, with entire TV networks dedicated to 24/7 real estate, books, magazines, websites, podcasts, videocasts, and audio casts.  There is nothing covered up and you can get anything you want.  You can be the neighborhood peeping tom . . . from the comfort of your home.  30 years ago if you wanted to know your neighbors secrets, you had to work for it.  Now, click a few buttons and you'll see their IRS liens, HELOCs, and filthy financial activities.  This is not sensationalism, this is real stuff.  There is even books on this topic, Sex and Real Estate: Why We Love Houses by Marjorie Garber.

      Will this liberal desire for more and more real estate information be the burning flame that burns our industry in the end?  What sparked this blog was a phone call from a client who asked me for some advice to appeal his tax assessment.  I thought he really needed me or was going to hire me as an appraiser, to represent him in front of the assessor.  In fact, he asked if he could email me the info he had and see if it is applicable.  Well, I could not believe my eyes--there it was, an Excel centerfold of 3 full-figured comps which he received from Zillow (not pillow) with other items linked to video and virtual tours to show the tax appeal board of review.  With his laptop and portable video projector in tow, this guy may be real estate pornographer or what?

       So are we the cause or the affect?  Is the public dangerous with so much frisky freedom of information?  All I know is I may be guilty as charged . . . www.thepropertypimp.com   Click here to see a naked house.