Maybe you’ve seen this story floating around the Internet, or maybe not. Maybe you instantly recognized it as a parody. Then again, maybe not.
So what’s it all about?
Facebook depicting a house on fire. The fire was real, but the caption was not.
The caption read:
Realtor sets home on fire after the homeowner decided not to sell!
In truth, a Realtor did not set the house ablaze. The caption was photoshopped over legitimate news footage covering an incident where a New Hampshire police officer was fatally shot while responding to a domestic dispute call at a home that subsequently exploded.
The video went viral on Facebook, fetching 4.2 million views, 33,307 shares, and 8,293 comments before it was removed. One can assume that it became so viral because many people in the general public believed it to be true.
We can only assume this was an innocent attempt at humor by the creator(s) of this video. However, the result is that in the eyes of many, it casts a negative light on Realtors and the real estate industry as a whole.
The unfortunate truth is that real estate professionals already have to defend against common misperceptions people have about them, and this video doesn’t help their case.
By and large, agents are hard-working, loyal professionals who strive to do right by their clients day in and day out.
