Conformation Bias in RE

Jeff,

Interesting thought and I'm sure it is something that we all suffer from on different levels. However, I think it depends on the hat that we are wearing as to how we read even your question.

I showed 20 houses to a young couple in the greater Westerville area this past weekend and they really liked one at the end of day one. So I did a CMA for them, did I look at it differently than I would have if the seller had come to me originally? Of course, I did. I realized quickly that the active comps were all of different price than the sold comps were. I presented it to my clients in that manner ... here is where the active listings are priced, and they are active for a reason, because here is where the SOLD listings were priced. We have room to negotiate with them and make something happen.

If it was my listing would I have been as upfront with my sellers? I would have told them about it, not sure they would have listened, but it would have been part of the discussion.

As to RE professionals turning a blind eye to negatives and only having "rose-colored" glasses on, I think that is a front. There are a lot of "members only" posts on Active Rain where members have let the guard down.

My thoughts are holy cow I am not sure I can digest all that without at least another cup of coffee.  How about in english, lol?

Hi Jeff,  Nice to see a post which gets away from strictly real estate but which has definite applications for us all.  I can't argue that the filtering/bias is always present and that it depends on which side of the transaction you might be on.  Nevertheless, our training, and the net effect of our real estate experience, helps to mitigate this effect.  Thanks for s good post.

Great Post, Jeff...........    I assume the post will say something different to each person that reads it.   For me it says, Listen more to the client, hear what they are saying not what you want to be hearing.