Half a dozen of one, six of the other.
That might be the subtitle for the merging together of half of a box of a dozen frozen fish sticks found by an Ohio woman last week.
But instead of tossing the x-shaped trio on the frying pan, Victoria Landis tossed them on ebay where their Easter week appearance and Calvary Hill resemblance garnered a winning bid of just shy of $79.
When I first heard the report on Chicago's Newsradio 780 I thought to myself that how we place value on things is nearly mysterious.
Somebody somewhere some time Saturday received a styrofoam box chock full of dry ice surrounding three pairs of frozen fish sticks that very possibly reminds them of the holiest day of the Christian calendar. And to get it they plunked down $78.77 at a time when consumers are spending less and less in grocery stores and big box stores, department stores and retail stores.
I thought of the fish sticks again Saturday as I showed a new East Village condo listing to a young man and his father. More and more lately idle chit chat during showings has been replaced by what seems to be a gnawing sense of entitlement by prospective buyers as they ask one of two questions -
- How long has this been on the market?
- How motivated is the seller?
On Saturday the buyer's dad went a step further when he replaced "motivated" with "desperate."
"Desperation," I replied, "doesn't accurately describe this client or any of my clients."
One of the glorious misperceptions of the current real estate market is the sentiment by buyers that sellers not only will take any offer presented but that they will be obsequiously grateful to receive it. The underpinnings of this sentiment smack a bit too much like the philosophy of the Marquis de Sade for my tastes.
The reality of the current market (as I see it from the listing side) mixes the following factors -
- properly priced properties sell
- even with proper pricing we can expect lengthier market times
- even with proper pricing we can expect low, possibly unrealistic, offers
- be patient to sell properly priced properties
Not to unfairly saddle Saturday's dad as guilty of making an intemperate remark - there are desperate souls trying to sell their homes. But the common traits of these unfortunate folks include that they perhaps bought too high, that their adjustable rate adjusted (and multiplied their monthly payment), perhaps they took out a home equity line and now their home is not worth as much (leaving them to make an inflated monthly payment), perhaps they have lost work as the Bush economic plan continues to bear fruit.
And while a front page Sunday article in the New York Times recounted how people are taking bartering into the realm of big box stores I paid my full tab at Charlie's Ale House on Clark Street in Andersonville Saturday afternoon and for a couple of cigars later in the day at Up Down Tobacco on Wells Street in Old Town and for Easter brunch with my family on Michigan Avenue in the Gold Coast.
But I digress. Sure it's no secret that there is desperation on the listing side. But across the board my resale clients - whether in Lakeview, the Ukrainian Village, the East Village, West Town, or Wrigleyville - are selling their current homes simply to enable them to move toward their next home purchase.
In each instance we listed the home after establishing its fair market value and recognizing that we could expect increased marketing time.
I guess what it boils down to is the fact that each of my clients would like to sell but none of them NEEDS to sell. Conversely, I suspect that each of the showings I have conducted at each of my listings has presented prospective buyers who would like to buy but perhaps DO NOT NEED to buy.
What I remember from Econ 101 is that this then is the market. All we need now is for reason to prevail between the two sides. If the past is any indication, we have grounds for optimism.
After all a woman in Ohio just sold three frozen pairs of fish sticks for nearly $80. You don't even want to know how that is per square foot.
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