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Comment by Solvency | Hacker News Reader

People like to shit on Nextdoor but once I embraced it as a homeowner it's my go-to for everything. Fuck Google/Yelp for reviews. It's refreshing getting local first-hand reviews and recommendations from neighbors about plumbers, roofers, electricians, solar panel experiences, tax stuff, home security camera questions, etc. Having a local authenticated community is so refreshing compared to the corporate bot infested internet.

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Just don't ask for realtor suggestions. Your inbox will never be the same again. And everyone is a realtor or related to the one that does the best job...

Ah and there's the example of a service that's local, organic, home-grown, small business, crunchy, and also thoroughly paid-off. To complement my sibling comment that "local" is not the deciding factor

It blows my mind why sellers would even need a realtor in hot markets. Your home will get a dozen offers in a week as soon as its put up for sale, you don’t need to burn 5% and do all the bullshit ritualism like staging or aerial photography that people are paying for.

Staging can certainly increase the offer amount by more than it costs

More than 5%?

Whatever bump you get from staging is probably not worth the opportunity cost from the money you’ve spent on the realtor.

Knowing there's an unpaid human writing the review is about the only thing that matters. I guess for repair services it has to be local, but the real point is, if I get a recommendation from friends or family, I can trust that they aren't affiliates, because they're staking the relationship on their review.

<https://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm#fatads>

> in dealing with advertisers you must remember they are professional liars. I don’t mean this to offend. I mean it as a job description. An advertiser's job is to convince you to do stuff you would not otherwise do.

There's a couple Facebook groups for residents for the city I live in and I've found them useful for the same reason. I should also start checking NextDoor more, thanks for the mention.

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