I have a long-standing pet peeve that I wanted to vent about today. I have been actively selling homes for more than a decade in and around Austin, but I have noticed a disturbing trend.
When one is a bad or clumsy dancer, he/she is said to have "two left feet". I would like to coin a phrase today for agents who write directions incorrectly on their own listings - two left hands.
I have a GPS system in my vehicle, but it doesn't get every address in outlying areas of town. I also have a pretty good sense of direction. I am good at following instructions if given properly. The key words in the last sentence were "if given properly".
PLEASE take the time to get the MLS directions right if you are a listing agent! The last several homes I have shown have all had incorrect directions.
Let's see - "turn right on CR 198" - seems easy enough. Wait. There IS no right on CR 198. What the heck?
"Turn right on Maple, then left on Main." Oh, I see. You meant it the other way around. Makes perfect sense now.
Have you actually visited the property in person? Maybe this is the first step. Believe me, I am not really super detail-oriented. I consider myself more of a big picture kind of guy. So, if incorrect directions bother me somewhat, it might actually make someone's else head explode.
I have another possible reason for this. Maybe you are trying to give directions to me as if we are sitting face-to-face (my right is your left, my left is your right?).
Maybe you are holding a map up to a mirror when you are entering your listings. That would certainly make good sense, although it does seem a little odd, now that I think about it.
Since I have seen this repeatedly in recent days, maybe someone in that part of town messed up his/her directions, and everyone is just copying and modifying as necessary.
I have even had some that were correct until you get to the street itself - "house is on the right". You mean in the drainage culvert? The last time I checked, this direction is called "left". My mom even taught me a cool trick when I was a kid. Hold up your hands with palms down (not up). Stick out your thumbs so that they are perpendicular to your hand, and make your thumbs touch each other. Which hand makes an L shape?
I think I actually figured out the problem just now. You are using your feet to type, rather than your hands. Sorry - my bad.
Thanks for your time!
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Okay, wait a second...if you are giving directions and you tell someone to take a right on 3rd street, is that THE 3rd street on the right or is it a right on 3rd Street? Hmmmm?
Shannon, I tried to give directions your way to my husband and apparently, there are a few short blocks with one long block in the middle that points north. So, I threw a piece of cheese at him. :)
Very funny! I have been having the same problem with MLS directions... "No, your other left"... Makes sense to me! :)
You are so right about directions often being wrong! I hate it when agents from another town take a listing in our town and say get off freeway at Exit 41. No one in the town knows which exit is 41. We call it something else like the Airport Exit or The Lowe's Exit. LOL And regarding those GPS's. They don't know any streets that are not years and years old. Why'd I pay all that money for that thing??
Jason,
The thing is if they don't know their left from their right, they probably don't know North from South or East from West... I love the ones that say, "starting from the office, go 5 miles south on.... etc...." Starting from "the office" ... what office?? ... oh, the listing office, maybe? Where's that office?????
JOHN - I must admit that using north, south, etc. would make it much harder for me to figure out how to get there. Just my opinion. I think it can start that way (e.g. go west on Main from I-35), but it would be too confusing after that.
KATHY - It sounds like you make a real effort to keep things current, which I greatly respect. However, unless the town is laid out really easily, I would actually have a more difficult time with N,S,E,W directions personally.
SHANNON - I knew you would like this one if you saw it. Thanks for stopping by!
JOY - Thanks! I'm glad that it provided a good laugh for you!
AMANDA - Good question. I usually try to get everything mapped out ahead of time, but sometimes you are doing things more "on the fly", and bad directions are super-irritating then.
MARC - I try not to rely on them too much either, but I have to sometimes, and those are the times that suck.
DEBI - I had one yesterday that was exactly the opposite of what it should have been (i.e. completely wrong for the last THREE turns).
BARBARA - I need to get the updated DVD for my GPS, which might help. Exit 41? Not helpful.
I am directionally challenged, so I could see how it would be frustrating to follow ill begotten directions from the MLS. I mapquest (no GPS yet) everything before I leave the house, because I know if I have to stop at a gas station, I am most certainly going to be given a quizzical look and pointed in the direction of the maps- even if the street ends up being two down from the gas station.
And why is that? Don't people know where they work or live? Inquiring minds want to know.
THe problem with giving right or left depends on how you are approaching the street. I also do N,S, E and W since people won't rely on the right and left thing.
If the directions section were bigger, I would give the instructions from two different directions, but I don't have that much space.
Me, I never rely on agent directions, and if I can't mapquest them, then I call to verify.
Hi Jason. Love the new picture. Very handsome!
Ken
Sometimes I wonder why we even have directions on the listing sheet since they are so often completely incorrect! Luckily our MLS system allows us to map the property and print directions from house to house, so I rarely even look at what the agent inputs anymore!
P.S. nice new pic!
We have the same problem in LA. Agents will say north of Moorpark, when the property is actually many blocks north of Moorpark . We could all save quite a bit of fuel if they could list the directions properly. We had one agent that listed the cross streets that were actually parallel to each other.
At times I think agents try to use the cache of a desirable area to make people think the home is in that area. We will see quite a bit of Beverly Hills adjacent or Baja Beverly Hills.
The GPS works fine for most things but I had to go down to San Antonio last week and the GPS mapped the street and it wasn't the correct East 11th street I was looking for---so much for relying on GPS--it took me another 20 minutes to find the correct East 11th street. And I'm really aggravated with agents in Austin who can't put the correct directions to their listing in mls...come on---its your job to get agents to the listing(with the buyers)...its very agravating and embarrassing when you are with a client trying to find a house and the instructions are completely wrong......and you know how some consumers are about lumping us all together....
Jason,
Alas, it is I ... I have been found out! :O)
I set up the Century 21 Ryan Realty blog for our office. On Tuesday of this week, I led a class about blogging for our admin and agents. It was a bit more challenging than I had expected, but we'll keep working on it until we get them set up on AR.
I did not want to unfairly draw attention to myself or away from the other agents, so I chose to remain anonymous, but like you, some of our friends recognized me.
The best part was reading your comment saying that I am a friend of yours.... that means a lot to me! Thank you for checking out the C21 blog and I hope you will subscribe to it, also. Much appreciation for your support!