Who owns your real estate data?
I recently had an interesting meeting with a prominent agency where we reviewed a contract from a potential service provider. I was left a little rattled (and the client even more), so I thought I'd share this info with you.
Ever cared to look into the fine print of your service providers terms & conditions? You'll be surprised that some claim ownership of data YOU entered into the system. This includes seller, buyer, listing and sales data. Some of these contracts often contain pages and pages of legal jargon and, in the case we’ve looked at, stipulated that the service provider can use the data entered by the agency as they wish.
Do you realize that your data (sellers, buyer,tenant info) is one of the most valuable pieces of information your business thrives on and should be protected at all cost? Protection your clients personal data is also critical for building long term relationships, required by the new consumer protection laws in South Africa, and ... running an ethical real estate business!
Entegral’s terms & conditions state that all data entered by our clients, are the property of our client. We will not under any circumstance sell or provide personal data to any company. Entegral is an independent company and you can therefore be assured that your data is in safe hands.
Just something you need to check up on and ponder if you have a growing real estate organisation / agency!