Cont.....
One of the weekly features on the Youtube channel would be “How RDOX just saved me from making the worst mistake of my life” to among other things gin-up FUD in potential customers. As they say in the Insurance Biz, “What you are really buying is Peace Of Mind”.
Might become the default routine for RDOX to create an RDOX page for any Real Estate that pops up on Zillow/MLS, for uncensored public comments “for entertainment purposes only”. Depending on legal issues, RDOX might need to be based overseas. Would much of RDOX, especially about “Location” run afoul of the “spirit” but not the “letter” of Fair Housing Laws? Probably, but lots of forums on lots of websites do too and they seem legally OK, because they aren’t actually in the RE biz.
Would sellers and RE Agents mostly hate it? Probably. Would it do lots of good to many Buyers helping them avoid mistakes, at the same time give them lots of confidence in buying, and thus overall elevate the entire RE market and prices? I think so.
Could AI be used to process all the Reports and provide additional value? I think so, but IMO the focus would be person-to-person human Reporting of specific property specific info, especially all sorts of details about “Location, Location, Location” that only Locals would know.
RE Agents input on “Location, Location, Location” tends to be limited to future appreciation and a few very obvious and generally accepted factors like high crime, next to freeway, etc, and miss that “One man’s heaven is another man’s hell” and vice-versa which RDOX would be able to sus out for Buyers. All RE Agents live in Holy Terror of anyone even thinking they brushed up against Fair Housing Law doctrine, so they strictly self-censor, and are thus useless. RDOX would be the exact opposite, and the only issue would be determining what info is valid vs “clowns”.
How to jump start the website and get to Critical Mass and make it go viral? Not sure, besides guerrilla marketing and posting about it on forums, and creating a few Cases. Tricky part is the need to connect Buyers and Reporters, as well as RE Agents very likely to do everything legal and illegal to steer clients away from using the service. Hopefully there would be some Streisand Effect.
There should be a feature were its free to ask a question as a Buyer and also free for a Reporter to post information about a property unsolicited, then Buyers/Reporters could Name Their Price to obtain/release the info, or bargain, and maybe an AI or human could judge and rate the info for its likely value, and post the general nature of the hidden info the important part redacted as a teaser. Human judges could be WFH and themselves earn tip money and gain rank and clout.
Another weakness is this service would be most powerful for properties in semi-rural or smaller towns where connecting Buyers and Reporters would be harder. Main value of RDOX would be to be able to get data on locations that the Buyer isn’t able to easily visit, and many Sellers, local politicians and their cops, might not be happy about someone trying to air their dirty laundry, even if its someone “investing in the community and local economy”. Any RE transaction is gotta be one of the biggest boosts to very local economy with lots of local labor intensive spending.
I doubt putting up a sign outside the local Dollar Store saying “Info wanted on house for sale, and this neighborhood, and maybe even the seller/owner and maybe even the Seller’s Agent, at 123 Cherry Lane, Smalltown, USA, get paid up to $100 or more, login to rdox.biz” would go over too well, but you never know. There are lots of flyers posted with “We buy ugly houses for cash” with phone# and website. The people who might object, home sellers, are leaving town anyways. RDOX would mostly actually help them, by removing FUD from Buyers.
But I bet it could be a hit among the Starving Student community in college and even high school. I can’t think of any legal or moral reasons why Minors couldn’t be paid Reporters, but there should be a required Quiz you must complete that shows you’ve read and understood warnings and guidelines about “Don’t dox yourself on RDOX by providing information that only you would know that could come back on you and bite you in the ***”, and some AI feature that screens for such Reporting, and informs the Reporter of possible issue to require him to re-check and edit or delete.
With a budget of $100 per account, minus the app’s 10% skim, it might be viable to USPS mail a few flyers to local bars, and spam local’s emails, and “money talks”. Imagine bar-flies “fishing” for a $10 instant payout, enough to buy their next round of “truth serum” with Apple/Google Pay. Win-win-win, for the bar-fly, the Buyer and the bar. Could become a new form of “gambling addiction”, but you never lose money! They said alcoholics drink to get rid of anxiety, but gamblers gamble because they crave anxiety. App should include a feature where the Buyer “goes live” at certain times (Happy Hour) to monitor their Page for instant payouts.
It could be a marketing strength that such an app could start working, out of the gate, starting with a single customer and RE interest address. Someone sees a flyer posted by an information Buyer and they can earn a few easy bucks and off we go. Its not like Social Media or a Forum that relies on large, or any, Critical Mass to even function.
Website should include a few “safety” features such was software that destroys any tracking “watermark” of any pics, and doesn’t retain originals, and Reporters and Buyers would retain ability to have any info on their IP, phone, PC, etc erased on demand, at least on the app’s end, including any password records. Buyers and “Professional” paid Reporters that want to retain their clout and reputation would log on with password to collect their Tips in Monero, Apple/Google Pay, Credit Card, or even Check or Money Order if Credit Card and Apple/Google Pay processing gets canceled for the app due to Cancel Culture reasons.
Could the app and website owner be successfully sued (if based in USA), when a Reporter posts slander/libel/defamation? Section 230 says “probably not”, and “act in good faith” to delete etc, but who knows. There would have to be some policy about not responding to any cash offers to take down valid, but derogatory and economically impacting, Reports so it doesn’t degrade into a blackmail/extortion scheme like Yelp.com.
Could it be successfully sued in other nations? No idea, other than fairly provocative websites like 4Chan seem to survive internationally, with lots of downright malicious context.
Could the app work in other nations besides USA for same type of customers for same reasons, i.e. the failure of existing Real Estate regime to supply buyers with good information? Absolutely.
Would such an app run very afoul of local sensibilities in certain cultures, including various in the USA? Maybe.
Would the website gain notoriety as one of the “bad boys of the WWW”, and that would fuel its sudden rise? Likely.
Might some group such as National Association of Realtors do SLAPP, possibly by funding legal action and hiding behind sympathetic individuals? Who knows.
en.wikipedia.org
Would those involved in creating it become forever tainted and linked to it? Also likely, then again the Napster guy ended up OK, then again his website didn’t involve hurt feelings and embarrassment of random private citizens. Even if the majority of people negatively affected by the Reports are dishonest Sellers who deserve every bit and more, it seems there would be some “Collateral Damage”.
Would existence of a RDOX page for a property, especially an offer of cash for “any and all info on everything and everyone” impart stink, suspicion and stigma on whoever ends up buying the house, and that would be this idea’s fatal flaw? Quite likely, but that might be mitigated by:
1) A feature that automatically creates a Page for all listings on Zillow/MLS/Homes.com etc.
2) Limit the sort of info that can be requested and provided, particularly about individuals and “personal stuff” of the neighborhood.
3) A sharing or “welfare” system where Reporters get paid for Reports on properties in that neighborhood that don’t have Buyers/Sponsors, so its mostly hidden if a Buyer is paying for info on a particular house. That might work because typically Buyers will be at least interested in more than one house in a given neighborhood, and this app is as much about “The Neighborhood in general” more than the physical details of an individual house. It would just be a sign of a hot RE Market if it became known RDOX was paying out.
4) People would figure out what sort of info a Buyer would consider valuable on any house with a For Sale sign or Zillow listing, and transmit to Buyers “on the down low” and/or with not so cryptic hints like “have you met BOTH the neighbor’s sons?” or “great ‘hood if you love to party all night, every night, cops wont mess with you!
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