Editorial standards
How Seller Intelligence is produced, sourced, reviewed, illustrated and corrected.
Our Mission
The LHBUSA Seller Intelligence Hub covers real estate news with a single goal: translate market shifts, policy moves, and rate changes into actionable intelligence for the only audience that matters — the homeowner deciding whether to sell. We are operators first — LHBUSA buys houses across the country every week — and our coverage reflects what we actually see at the closing table, not the trade-press narrative.
Brand truth: "The data is public. The synthesis isn't." Anyone can read the same source reports we read. What sets our coverage apart is the lens, the speed, and the editorial judgment about what matters for a seller's net.
Publishing Principles
- Named sources. Every news briefing names the outlets its reporting is based on and lists them in a Sources and methodology section, with links where the source address is available. Our pipeline clusters coverage of the same story across outlets and gives more weight to stories several outlets are reporting, but many briefings are based on a single outlet's reporting, and the number of sources is shown on each article.
- Seller relevance filter. Articles must translate to actionable seller insight. We don't publish recap content for volume. If a story doesn't move pricing, timeline, or net for a homeowner, we don't run it.
- Fact-first, opinion second. Statistical claims, court timelines, dollar amounts, and named entities should be verifiable from cited sources. Our editorial takes are framed as analysis, not fact.
- Conflict disclosure. LHBUSA is a direct buyer of real estate — not a neutral observer. We disclose this on every Seller Intelligence page. We publish stories that recommend listings, agent representation, or holding strategies when those are the right call.
- Bylines. Each article carries the byline of the editor it is assigned to or the Local Home Buyers USA Editorial Team. Individual bylines are used only for editors whose identity the publication has confirmed; all other articles, including those originally bylined by former or unconfirmed contributors, carry the Editorial Team byline. Editors have public profiles.
AI Assistance Disclosure
LHBUSA uses AI as a core part of our editorial workflow. We disclose this openly because readers deserve to know how their information is produced.
Our pipeline fetches reporting from established real estate outlets, groups coverage of the same story, and drafts an original seller-focused briefing with AI. Before anything is published, the draft must pass an automated quality gate: a minimum length and section structure, no placeholder text, no sales-pressure language, real figures where the story is data-led, and an AI editor check. Drafts that fail are held and not published. Drafts that pass are published automatically.
Our editorial team is accountable for everything we publish. We review issues readers report and correct errors under the policy below. We do not republish source articles; source material informs the briefing, which is written in our own words.
Images and Data Graphics
Every article has a primary image chosen for its relevance to the story. We use, in order of preference:
- Data graphics we produce from public data — for example, U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Federal Reserve series, or Freddie Mac's mortgage-rate survey, retrieved from FRED at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Each chart names its source, units and date range. We only chart data that existed when the article was published, and we do not chart data we do not have.
- Public-domain or openly licensed photographs, such as U.S. government photos and images on Wikimedia Commons, credited according to their licenses.
- Licensed photography from Unsplash, reviewed for relevance before use.
Unless a caption says otherwise, photographs are illustrative: they do not show a specific property, person or event named in the story. City and landmark photos are used only on stories about that place. We do not use AI-generated images that could be mistaken for photographs of real events.
Ethics & Independence
- We do not accept payment for editorial coverage. Stories are not pay-for-placement.
- LHBUSA is a direct buyer of real estate. This is disclosed on every page. Our editorial team operates independently from our acquisitions operation.
- We do not publish stories based on inside information from sellers we are in active negotiation with.
- We publish stories that recommend selling through traditional channels, holding, or refinancing when the data supports those moves — even when they don't lead to an LHBUSA transaction.
- We are not a licensed real estate broker, agent, attorney, financial advisor, or tax professional. Our coverage is editorial commentary, not professional advice.
Corrections Policy
When we get something wrong, we correct it openly.
- Factual errors (dates, dollar amounts, names, court details) are corrected in the article with a dated correction note.
- Significant errors that materially change the seller-impact analysis are flagged in a clearly labeled correction notice.
- Updates. When an article's text changes after publication, the page shows an “Updated” time next to the publication time, and the article's structured data carries the same modified date. We do not change dates on articles that have not changed.
- Source disputes are reviewed against the original reporting; when reasonable doubt exists, we update the article and note the clarification.
- Reader-submitted corrections can be sent to the address below.
Coverage Diversity
We cover real estate news across all U.S. markets, not just the hot metros. Sellers in slow markets need accurate intelligence as much as sellers in fast ones — arguably more. Our editorial team makes a deliberate effort to cover:
- Secondary and tertiary metros that get under-covered by national real estate press
- Rural and small-town markets where seller options differ materially from urban markets
- Distressed and below-median markets where seller decisions carry higher stakes
- Policy and regulatory shifts at the state and local level, not just federal news
Contact & Accountability
We want to hear from you — especially when we get something wrong.
Editorial inquiries & corrections: sales@localhomebuyersusa.com
Data & PropData questions: propdata@proptechusa.ai
Phone: (800) 858-0588
LHBUSA is operated by PropTechUSA.ai, founded by Justin Erickson.
Changes to these standards
- : Clarified sourcing (many briefings rely on one outlet), bylines, and the automated publishing pipeline; added the Images and Data Graphics section and an explicit update policy. Articles previously bylined to contributors the publication could not confirm now carry the Editorial Team byline.