If you’ve driven along Hessa street lately, you might have noticed Bayut’s latest billboard for their TruCheck campaign. It caught my eye, not only for the impressive visuals but because a friend of mine—looking particularly dashing—appears at the end.
But let’s get to the real question here: how much truth is in the listings we see every day?
It’s no secret that in today’s world, finding accurate information online can be challenging. At www.mintaga.com, we value diverse opinions and trust our users to weigh them independently. Yet, there’s always an implicit trust that the internet will ultimately self-regulate. We are an opinion platform so your truth is your truth.
When it comes to property portals, we see substantial efforts in marketing campaigns around "Verified" and "TruCheck" listings, each striving to establish credibility. Both have spent millions on campaigns that assure consumers their listings are legitimate—yet many users might still feel a touch of cynicism. After all, who hasn’t encountered the classic, “Oh, that listing is no longer available, but here’s an alternative”?
This brings us to a dilemma. For property portals, balancing accuracy and revenue is no easy task. Their revenue streams depend on listings, and with fierce competition, it’s clear they’ve implemented measures to ensure listing quality. Yet, somehow, those “deal of a lifetime” listings, which are often bait for data collection, persist.
One has to wonder whether the funds poured into advertising campaigns could be better spent on further refining these verification processes. Isn’t the most effective way to build trust through actions rather than just marketing? True, the UAE’s real estate sector is fast-paced and highly competitive, which has propelled it to remarkable heights globally. But that same drive begs the question: at what cost to transparency?
So who’s at fault here? Is it the Agents or the Platforms? I can only imagine how hard it would be to regulate the real estate industry. It seems that the platforms are trying to address it, whether their effort is in the right place being debatable. Surely the owners of the Real Estate companies have some position on how their brands are viewed? Or are we in such a bull market that no one cares, total fight to the death, kill or be killed?
I would love to find out more on this subject as at the end of the day it is the consumer that suffers the difficulty in wading through this digital real estate jungle. Maybe we can get some people to share their thoughts from both sides.
Out of interest I ran a little test. I found a villa on a platform and felt that the offer was quite strange. It was a very over priced advert for a villa in a community I live in. The agent was highly recommended and the listing was Verified/True checked So I enquired…. The result was as expected.
Im now buying a three bedroom apartment in Ajman obviously.