The housing news of late continues to be dire for the most part. There are some indications that the bottom may have been reached as some areas of the U.S. are experiencing an actual uptick in new and existing home sales – some of this attributed to low interest rates but mostly due to depressed prices.
Having been an aficionado of Amazon’s recommendation system for years I wondered if the real estate market could ever adopt an organic recommendation system.

At first thought it did not seem like such a bad idea. I envisioned prospective home buyers visiting homes for sale and commenting on what they liked and what they did not. A homebuyer recommendation bulletin board could prove to be helpful for other prospective buyers having access to information on the house itself, the surrounding neighborhood, the schools and their proximity to the house itself, size of rooms etc.

But then I thought again. What home seller would want to allow strangers to come into their house and then write about what they saw? A home is a very private thing and the way it is decorated and kept is a truly personal decision. A comment like ‘The pink bathroom was awful and what were they thinking about when they put in the light fixtures in the kitchen??’ Or ‘needs a new roof and a paint job as well’ In fact I surmise that the lion’s share of comments would be negative since if a buyer was truly enamored of a house why would they want to put up information that might draw MORE buyers and therefore MORE competition, (remember the good old days of bidding wars for houses back in the 90’s and early 00’s?).

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow for community conversations about a myriad of subjects. Restaurants and other PUBLIC spaces seem to fit well with recommendation systems. Private homes and private car sales should and I expect will never fall into that kind of scrutiny. And that’s a good thing.

What do you think? Could it happen? Will it happen?