The 50 million visitors to realtor.com now have an online community where they can get answers to home-related questions and share homebuying, selling and ownership experiences, the website announced this week.
House Talk, available at community.realtor.com, is an online forum for both Realtors and the various people they serve.
“House Talk was born from a desire to alleviate uncertainty and give home buyers, sellers, renters and dreamers a forum to ask questions and share their own experiences,” said Tapan Bhat, chief product officer for realtor.com. “When you have someone ready to help, suddenly things seem more manageable.”
Who’s invited?
Anyone can join the forum by creating a community account at community.realtor.com. Participants can then click the “start a discussion” button to ask a question or “reply” in an established thread. Users also have the option to “like” a discussion and upload photos or videos to their posts.
House Talk Home Page (PRNewsFoto/realtor.com)
House Talk also gives Realtors an opportunity to offer helpful advice and share their knowledge with potential buyers, sellers and homeowners.
“Realtors can showcase their professional expertise on House Talk by sharing experiences, answering consumer questions and offering advice,” said Lexie Puckett Holbert, realtor.com’s senior communications manager.
Puckett Holbert said there is no cost for Realtors to join House Talk, but realtor.com has plans to enhance the forum experience for professionals. Those plans will be announced later, she said.
The community is subdivided into several categories: Financing, Buying and Selling, Renting, Home Improvement, Talk of the Town, Unique Homes, and Block Party.
In its first week, the community gained 600 members who posted more than 800 questions and comments.
So far, some of the questions that users have asked in the community include:
- “How should I price my home to sell fast?”
- “How do I choose an agent to sell my house?”
- “How will a homeless shelter next door affect my home value?”
Other users observed, “This year’s interior design trends appear to be using a lot of grey and yellow,” and “Be careful, very careful, with HOAs.” Participants also shared DIY instructions for their remodeling projects.
Realtor.com is operated by News Corp., a subsidiary of Move Inc. All posts on House Talk are the property of Move, which has the right to use, copy, perform, display and distribute any content posted on the forum.
Realtor.com announced on Feb. 5 that its website attracted 50 million unique users in January, and the number of unique visitors on desktop and mobile devices grew by more than 40 percent in 2015.
