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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Do not trust realtors. Even if you've done extreme due diligence, interviewed a few, and picked one that comes with great referrals from people you know. Just don't trust them. They are playing with your money, and their incentive is much more to push you fast and to either bid high (if you're a buyer) or accept a low offer (if you're a seller). Get their input, but verify it is what is actually best for you.

Read the chapter in Freakonomics about realtors if you want proof. [/quote]

Way to generalize. And you're a broken record about the Freakonomics book. See Norm Scheiber's evisceration of it. The chapter you refer to concerns Chicago real estate market -- all real estate markets are local. In relation to this particular Chicago analysis, Leavitt doesn't consider the mentality of the two groups of sellers. Simply put, most clients of agents are motivated to sell quickly themselves due to a change in life circumstances  while agents can afford to sit and wait because they simply want to upgrade. So please try to think a little more critically, stop being so gullible and parroting this book like it's anything more than the junk science it is.[/quote]

I personally told Steve Dubner the same thing at a gathering in DC.  He was royally pissed at me and could not counter my comment.  Leavitt has an ax to grind with real estate agents because he (being the genius economist) overpriced his house and it sat on the market.  As most irrational sellers do, he blamed the real estate agent and then developed the bizarre theory that real estate agents get more money for their house because they hold them on the market longer.  Wrong.  Real estate agents get more money when selling their properties because they are well presented and they understand the market and pricing.

I will credit Leavitt for hiring Dubner to write up his strange theories and successfully monetize them. Quite an accomplishment for any economist.[/quote]

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