Facts Reveal an Abundance of South Lake Tahoe Opportunity... it Escapes Him, but it won’t You.
(LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) Well, it finally happened. We just ran into a South Lake Tahoe real estate agent who is so antagonized by us reporting market facts on our blog, and in the local newspaper, that it relieved him of his senses. Apparently the facts were not consistent with his agenda. Even more amusing was, in addition to suspended thinking, our fact based reporting morphed him into a big blind blundering blowhard of a burro in the first order.
First, lets explore what made a man turn into a jackass. The Tahoe Daily Tribune recently reported a comment by us that there have been no single home sales in the Tahoe Keys in 2008. (read it here) Then we'll do two separate posts following this one: one will take a look at reporting real estate numbers with an agenda, and after that lets take a hard look at what’s going on with real estate in the Tahoe Keys right now. (Incidentally, there are still no 2008 home sales in the Tahoe Keys.)
The belting burro, and it was loud, accosted both of us about this; he said that our facts were incorrect. We asked him what Tahoe Keys home sold in 2008 that we had we missed. He said one sold in December. We scratched our heads, thought long and hard about that, and pretty much deducted with reasonable certainty that December, 2008 hasn’t happened yet. (See what we mean about suspended thinking?)
The offensive, ornery onager continued “you could not have picked a worse time to say that about the Tahoe Keys!” We wondered about the distinction, if any, about a right and a wrong time for reporting facts, and exactly what his agenda might have been to deduct such a conclusion.
He brayed on that we’re always negative about the market on our blog, that we’re just naysayers of doom and gloom, and then claimed that the South Lake Tahoe real estate market has now stabilized. (It hasn’t, but we’re getting closer, and we’ll do a separate post about this later too.)
We asked him (in polite hew-haw) if he had considered that less sales means greater opportunity for buyers (the basic economic principle of supply and demand)? And if facts substantiating a buyers market, and increasing opportunity, might be part and parcel of increasing demand? We suspect this must have sparked a misfired synapse somewhere in the burro’s brain because it answered something about the US GDP, and less US jobs were lost last month than expected, which has nothing to do with the South Lake Tahoe real estate market right now that we can surmise.
We also asked him about a median sold price number found in the same article, one that says the median sold price in “Lake Tahoe” is $662,172 (It is actually $402,250 in South Lake Tahoe, CA). Donkey Man agreed that the number was incorrect and misleading, but said it was marginally “ethical” because reporting a higher number might help the brokerage that reported it get more business.
Instantly, I felt like the Aflack duck trying to talk to Yogi Berra.
We make fun here, but there is point to it. The main focus of our blog is to report factual market reality to the public. All the time! Without agenda. Even if it happens only once, the reporting of misleading real estate numbers to support an agenda is one too much. And it happens much more than that, unfortunately.
With regard to us being negative, in the last year we have posted 501 articles on this blog. Not once have we ever reported to you that we are in a “bad” real estate market. In fact, many of our posts state that a real estate market should never be categorized in terms “bad” or “good”, or “positive” or “negative.” The market just is what it is, which is either a general advantage for a buyer, or a seller. Both of whom we represent with equal admiration, passion and ethusiasm.
Currently we have about 1,000 page views a week on this blog (we don't know how many individual people that is, but it's a lot.). And we’ve had countless emails from people we have never met before thanking us for putting out the real information consistently. “A breath of fresh air,” one says. “I have never seen anything like this before,” chimed another that came in this morning.
We’ve got sales, clients, friends, and a queue of buyers in development right now from this blog. The truth is we’ve also got agents, local real estate managers and appraisers who use the numbers in this blog... for their practices...to represent to their clients... because the numbers here are accurate.
Some have asked us why we spend as much time as we do putting out this information (I do all of it myself by hand). The idea behind their question is why don’t we sell it, or charge a fee to get it?
First of all, the data is not ours to sell. It belongs to every member of our multiple listing service, which among others is virtually every real estate broker and agent who practices our profession in South Lake Tahoe. Theoretically, you should get the same real estate numbers from every agent you meet.
More importantly, though, is our firm belief that accurate, consistent reporting of market facts better informs the public, who will therefore have the means to make better and more comforting real estate decisions, and as such will produce a better, healthier, more productive real estate market that will benefit all of us.
If this blog had a motto, “Information is King” would be it. That also takes into consideration if a jackass has the ability, or disposition, to understand it, or not.
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