Paper Vs. Digital: Pros And Cons Of Property Listings In These Media Formats

Once upon a time, property listings could only be viewed in paper form. Additionally, you could only see a picture of the house if the owner paid big bucks to include a picture of the exterior of the house with listing. Otherwise, you had to go see the house in person. Digital media entered the scene, and now you could see a lot more of the house. However, there are still some pros and cons to each media format.

Discrepancies in Price

A lot of times you will see the same house featured in a listing in both digital and print media. The problem is that, in paper format, it lists the house as one price, and the digital listing lists the house at another price. Which is correct?

That all depends on when the paper listing began and how long it is supposed to run in a newspaper or real estate brochure. Sometimes sellers run the paper ad first, and opt to run it for three months. In the meantime, they may decide that they want greater coverage than what the paper format offers. So the sellers list the property with an agency via a digital listing.

If the house does not seem to be selling by the time they list it digitally, they drop the price on the digital listing, but have to leave the paper listing run as-is. They cannot change the paper listing as they are locked into the length of time they paid for the listing to run. With the digital listing, they can edit that and change the price as often as they want or need to change it.

Choosing Not to Sell

If you get really excited by a listing you see in paper format, and then want to view the house, you need to call the realtor or real estate agency listed. If the agent tells you that the house is no longer available for some reason, you may be very upset. The paper ad is still running, clear as day. If you had been looking and checking for the house via the digital format, you would have discovered that it either sold, or the owner pulled it from the listings and decided not to sell.

Ultimately Running as Current

Usually, a listing in digital format is current. However, this is not always true. Some property listing apps for mobile viewing have more discrepancies. This could be for any of the reasons previously mentioned, or the listing you are viewing is the most current. The only way to know with absolute certainty is to check with a real estate agency, like Team Campshure Walczyk , Resource One Realty, LLC.


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