The Twilight Zone.

After a lovely summer break I came back with a goal, to make this newsletter less sarcastic and more positive…it’s scary what four weeks in the swamp can do to a man.

Following last week’s note about the return of blatant bait pricing I was inundated with replies from buyers and buyers agents sharing their experiences and unsurprisingly the same agents names kept coming up….even some hilarious nicknames like "the cold witch", "the smiling assassin" (don't worry we’ll protect the guilty...for now). This sent me into a day dream about becoming some kind of real estate Batman committed to protecting the citizens of Gotham but that sort of costume change would severely damage my listings pipeline. Mind you, the idea of getting a bat mobile and turning up to open houses where known serial bait pricers were conducting open houses definitely has its appeal…oh to see their faces.

Then…I scoffed/choked/chortled when I watched an agent awkwardly deliver a market report with an opening line of ‘the rain this week hasn’t dampened the demand in the local market,’ oh dear oh dear oh dear…I think my violent cringe immediately created more age lines on my face. The best part was the report ended with a price guide on a new listing…but wait…it gets better…someone then called him out and posted a comment saying ‘how much?? No way…that house is worth more much than that!??’ The response was ‘we pride ourselves on accurate pricing’….LOL. “Why is my nose so big?” Pinocchio cried out.

Look, it’s true that to effectively sell real estate the thing you have to avoid is overshooting the mark when it comes to pricing. And yes, I am aware of the hypocritical tight rope I am on but there is a compelling price guide and then there is the Twilight Zone.

A special shout out to our very own Alex Myers (also known as Disney on Ice) who sold a gorgeous home in Clifton Gardens this week for a great result…the rain certainly didn’t dampen the demand on that one either!

No real estate agents were harmed in the making of this week’s newsletter….well maybe just a little.

Until next week,

David Murphy