Mortgage Buyer, Do you know who your lender is?
Did you know that third-party real estate sites like Zillow are not liable for the information on their sites?
Recently there was an interesting, must-read, article on the Wall Street Journal about the concept of the liability of a third party site, Amazon and buyers you better be aware! The article “You might be buying trash on Amazon” by Khadeeja Safdar, Shane Shifflett and Denise Blostein. The article basically highlighted the concept of how anyone, literally anyone can sell something on Amazon. And Amazon’s response: “Amazon exerts limited control over its third-party marketplace, which connects buyers with millions of merchants around the world. The company has said it isn’t liable for what these merchants sell, saying in court cases Amazon itself isn’t the one selling the products listed by third parties.”
“You Might Be Buying Trash on Amazon”—Literally Dumpster divers say it’s easy to list discarded toys, electronics and books on the retailer’s platform. So we decided to try.
Equally interesting was a review of that Amazon article by the COO/VP of Fairview Commercial Lending. The author, Glen Weinberg wrote about the similarities of between seller on Amazon and real estate sellers on third-party real estate sites like Zillow. Do mortgage buyers really know who they are working with?
“You buy dumpster items on Amazon and Zillow; Buyer beware! “
This excerpt from Weinberg’s article says it all :
Third party real estate sites “Amazon has fought and won in court that they are merely a “conduit” for 3rd parties to sell their products. Essentially, they are stating buyer beware that they are not liable for information/items listed by third parties. The same is true for real estate sites. For example, Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, etc… are merely a “conduit” for information from various third parties in the form of real estate information/listings. Just as in the case of Amazon, these companies are not liable for the information on their sites as they don’t actually generate the information nor do they “validate” the information they are receiving.”
Bottom line…do you know who you are working with and are they looking out for your best interests or strictly their commission? Is the information you are receiving the best it can be or simply “information”.
John Burke, of Burke Mortgage in Connecticut