Some days you're lucky enough to read a newspaper and yesterday was one of those days. It was an eye-opener and chilling for me to read an article printed in the Walls Street Journal on Thursday, July 20, 2019, on the front page called "Algorithms Invade the Housing Market," by Ryan Dezember and Peter Rudegeair. To get a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, follow their link. Or for specific information about the article, I am referring to "Algorithms Invade the Housing Market " reference this Link for further reading.
CONSUMERS BEWARE! Licensed Real Estate Agents who have been in the business a long time or less and who are doing business the traditional way, honest, and ethical were, in my opinion, are being thrown under the BIG BUS. Therefore, I am turning to you, my fellow members of ActiveRain to read all about it online or go to your local Public Library to find the newspaper to share what you know is true. For me, it was insulting and the article was one-sided in favor of three major Investors now buying property directly from homeowners changing the landscape of how real estate is bought and sold. In one of the examples of how easy it is for investors to make billions, the article states Investor "pays cash, minus its fee which ranges from 6% to 13%." Further examples of flipping include doing something so simple as "replaced the carpet and repainted it and put it back on the market," can gain them a short term profit of $25,000 - $28,000.00 or more. The Investors claim they are using algorithms started with real estate agents i.e., "square footage and comparables." Then they "incorporate more idiosyncratic factors." Below is just one of numerous excerpts with negative connotations against real estate agents that got my attention:"
"Residential real estate has long been a fragmented industry. Renting, buying and selling a house generally means dealing with an assortment of local real-estate agents..."
In my opinion, I believe it would be helpful for consumers to hear both sides of the story and who better to talk to than their local agents who are not paid actors on popular televisions shows, or big Investors who started to swooped down on the misfortune of homeowners who lost their homes due to foreclosures who, by the way, were approved by mortgage lenders who sold sub-prime loans or by borrowers who were approved for high-risk mortgages with little or no documentation. Why on earth would any homeowner who lived in their home, had great memories of raising a family, used their hard earned money to maintain and keep their homes as long as they did leave big money on the table for Investors to make more money when they aren't even local? And even if a person chooses to sell their home because of their own misfortunes, change in job or perhaps because of divorce want to walk away leaving more to anyone who puts "lipstick on a pig" and profits greater than if they went the traditional route using agents who represent them the good old-fashioned way with honesty, integrity, and trust?
Please, read all about it. In all my years in the business, I never heard a single real estate agent or Broker boast about how much money they made by taking advantage of consumers by flipping properties and boasting about how they profited off the expense of consumers. But you can read about it in the newspaper. What I would like to know is why is journalism nowadays so one-sided?
Most of all, I want to know why journalism is now one-sided???
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