National Do Not Call Registry

[A1cntrler]

I was online looking at refinancing our home with a 40yr mortgage and cashing out some equity. I got to the question asking me the current value of my home. I have a rough idea of what it is worth based on local sales of similar sized/ similar construction homes, but I wanted to get more precise. I found on my current mortgage lenders site (Chase) a free service that will show the values of my home and those near me along with the sales history for a period of time. It was labeled as a free service to customers, but it uses a third party coany to gather the information. I reviewed to Terms and Conditions just to make sure that I was not going to be charged anything down the oad for the "free" service. I found this in the fine print:



You agree that the Partner may contact you (by email, by telephone or otherwise) using the information you provided with information and offers of services available through the Partner or any of its affiliates' websites. You hereby consent to any such communication or phone calls even if your phone number is on any Do Not Call list.



I guess this means that you basically sign away your rights to not be called... Just a reminder to read the terms and conditions whenever you register for anything. They can slip in all kinds of weird things in there, and simply clicking on "I Agree" can somehow make your life miserable, even if it is just an evening of peace without the phone ringing....

 

[EddieS'04]

Iam on my state and nantional no-call. Lately I have been getting survey and you won calls. Makes me wonder what I signed up for, by mistake. It has been irritating..:angry:

 

[George C]

Yea...do not call registries are not as good as they sound. If you do business with a company they are usually immune to the do not call, as well as their "partners". I had a number calling me and I had never done business with them or their affiliates and put in a complaint with the registry. Basically all they do is see if a lot of people are putting in the same complaint. If not enough people complain or you are the only one it is happening to they don't investigate individual complaints. Never worked for me!



George

 

[Curt NA]

If you haven't tried this already, Zillow will provide a free home estimate (without having to input any personal info, just an address):

 

[Jeff C]

My parents have Caller ID and some other thing. If their number shows up as unknown, they have to identify themselves verbally or the call is automatically rejected. If they identify themselves, you can still accept, reject, or ignore the call.



I only have a cell, no home phone, and unless it's a number or area code I recognize, I don't answer it. If it's important, they'll leave a message.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Yeah, another shout out for Zillow. I checked our home value estimation again today after more than 6 months of not tracking it. Glad to see our local area rebounded back above the dip of late 05, early 06. We are now back to record highs.



TJR

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Zillow is 95% accurate as they have no way of knowing the upgrades that one does to their house.

 

[TrainTrac]

Go to the link below to opt out of getting all those ridiculous credit card offers. You can opt out for five years online, or permanently by mail.

 

[Richard L]

I am on the national "Do Not Call" registry and within a few months virtually all sales calls have stopped. I will occassionally get a call from a company that I do business with wanting me upgrade or introduce a new product or service, but that's very infrequently.



I have found the best way not to get on peoples calling list is to pay a little extra and have your phone number unlisted, and don't give out your phone number. If businesses ask for a phone number to write a check, I give them my old phone number. If they call that number they will get a message stating that the party has changed their number and does not want the new number given out.



The only people who have my telephone number are family, friends, my Doctor's office, etc. No businesses know my number except the telephone company.



...Rich

 

[Thomas Rogers]

SeattleSportTrac,



Actually if you are the owner of a home, through Zillow you can "claim" your property and then enter your upgrades and their estimated values. You can also pick 10 alternater local area comparable homes (say that are more like your home in sq ft, or lot size, etc). Once you do that, you get an updated "owner estimate" and you can make that public. Of course, very few actually do this, but I thought I would mention it because of your "no way" comment.

 

[Jake Levin]

Jeff C, It sounds like your parents have call intercept, I had that and it was great! If the caller did not have caller ID information they were put into a system that required them to give information and then the phone would ring, you would hear the info, then could decide to answer the call, send it to voicemail, or give a precanned message saying not to call again.



I also entered all of my phone numbers on the do not call registry and have not gotten a call from a telemarketer in a couple of years now. But the entries in the registry expire after 5 or 7 years so you do have to go in and reregister the numbers after a while.



My girlfriend's townhouse is on zillow, I went in, claimed it for her, and updated the information to correctly identify her property. I think it over valued the townhouse by $25,000 but since the development is brand new, they don't appear to have much info about the sales of the other lots yet.

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

But of course, TJR.

 

[A K]

Zillow is pretty neat. However, my home county has not reassessed in over 30 years, so the values are way, way off.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

AdamCKach, assessed values have little to do with the valuations that Zillow provides. The way I understand it, websites like Zillow use comparable sales figures, not assessed values. Maybe the values are "way, way off" because you are in a stagnant market with few recent sales?



TJR