Did That Tweet Just Cost You Money?

We all have those social networking friends that feel the need to tell you every last detail of their personal life via Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, Foursquare etc. Someone you may hardly know in "real" life is willing to tell you everything from intimate personal relationship details to which type of mustard they just bought. For them, their life is an open book and I commend them for it. I really do. I can't open myself up like that. (Although, I must admit that I'm thankful for the ability to discreetly hide the news feeds of some individuals' posts.) But sometimes that openness can come at a cost. Literally, a monetary cost.

A letter in the March 2011 issue of REALTOR magazine reminded me of a story a fellow agent recently told me. In both cases, a home buyer posted details of a real estate transaction that they were actively negotiating. In the magazine story, the buyer indicated how strongly they wanted the house and even what they were willing to pay for it. The seller was somehow made aware of this, which obviously compromised the buyer's negotiating position costing them money on the deal as a result.

As Realtors, one of our most sacred responsibilities to clients is to protect their interests in contract negotiations. This includes their motivation for selling/buying, how badly they want to deal to get done and how much they are willing to accept/pay. Although the importance of keeping those cards close to your chest may be obvious to agents and most clients, perhaps we can do a better job at educating clients to the potential dangers of making such knowledge public, even when they think it's just their "friends" that they're telling.

Posted by Mike Cromie on Beyond Realty - St. Louis Real Estate Blog.