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Comment by Chris2048 | Hacker News Reader

Chris2048

Why do they not publish the address?

They want to force you to interact with them. It gives them the chance to sell you even if the property isn't what you want--they'll always offer to help you find another property, or they "have another listing that'll be just perfect" for you. Its a sales tactic.

Or the OP is looking at unimproved land/lots which don't have addresses. I'm currently looking at properties for a future vacation home and at least here the electric company assigns addresses--so if the lot doesn't have electrical service it won't have a real street address. You're lucky if the realtor lists the tax ID so you can look it up in the county database.

If it's door 1: https://www.google.com/search?q=bait+and+switch

It is the first reason. It is Germany. By law, the realtor is required to be paid, if you got first contact through them. With that they want you to require to sign the required paperwork, that they work for you.

But as another poster pointed out, it costs everybody time when you need to make an appointment and then at first sight you see that this will not work out.

At least in my country avoiding squatters is also a reason to not show the exact address.

I would have presumed privacy

Edit:

With detached houses the obfuscation is harder/less valuable, but ideally I'd rather not have images and price and exact location of my property be linked online essentially forever.

Price is one thing, but internal layout and floorplan coupled with exact address is ropey.

Isn't all of that public record anyway?

Actually not in Germany. Because of privacy the register is not allowed to tell anybody who is the owner of the property. The register is only allowed to give out this information for valid reasons. Buying is not such a reason. A broken pipe would be a valid reason. Any of such request needs to be recorded and the owner needs to be informed.

In the US, internal layout is not generally available (may vary by locale) and may not even exist on paper. Square footage/location/owner is--although, speaking for my own case, details about the house in the public record aren't necessarily accurate.

Makes it harder for competing realtors to contact the actual owners to also start promoting/selling the property?

To claim commission I suppose.

They have a non-exclusive deal with the owner?

There are properties that get listed by an agency and it's totally free game for who sells it. I've had a realtor tell me that I should "use her exclusively" because she would get me better deals.

Don't do that, it's incredibly stupid.

In some countries realtors can claim that because you contacted them first about the property, that they get the comission on the property regardless if you continued to use their services or not. I guess this is to avoid situation where realtor connects the buyer with the seller only for them to decide to cut the realtor out and sell without the comission. This gives a big incentive to realtor to hide the location so you cannot contact the seller yourself, and they usually ask you to sign documents where you agree to this practice before they take you to see the property.

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