Ugh, The Power of a Bad Headline to Make One Cringe
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Sorry, but this one just drove me off the edge. BusinessWeek has this headline on a story by Prashant Gopal, and I am still cringing.
Even Hot Housing Markets Can Go Cold
Now I enjoy BusinessWeek and have great respect for their housing reporting, it is some of the best in the business, but the editor who thought that this headline was telling a story just grates on my every nerve.
It goes with headlines like, Even the Best Drivers have Accidents or Cancer Could Strike The Healthiest.
As my 11 year old would say, no duh!
Let’s face it, no housing market is immune to a downturn. And to use the first person story of how a seller can not sell their home in a hot market is even more grating. One person does not make a story, one street does not make a town, one suburb does not make a metropolitan market.
Sure markets change. Sure some homes do not sell for a myriad of reasons.
The author could have gone to some sections of Los Angeles and reported that the housing slump in Southern California is over because their was a bidding war on a home.
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) may sell papers when writing an article, or propel blogs to high levels of traffic, but when writing headlines for a respected publication like BusinessWeek one has to be a little more circumspect.
Otherwise bloggers might start writing headlines like:
BusinessWeek Editorial Standards Slip Dramatically At End Of 2007
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Pingback by Meanwhile Good Copy And Great Headlines Shine — The Real Estate Bloggers on 10 December 2007:
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Comment by Rhea on 10 December 2007:
Yeah, but think of how many people have neglected to recognize the obviousness of that statement?! A lot.
Comment by Sandra Levin on 12 December 2007:
If the problem points to housing market, I think the sellers don’t exert enough effort to put their properties in the market. Even if they are, maybe they are not using the right tools. Technology today has provided buyers with more than enough information. It might be goo din some ways, but sometimes they are overloaded with information, they could not make a good decision. Sometimes, they are even be misled. For instance, sellers should use a better marketing tool like cellmyhouse.org
Comment by david in norcal on 15 December 2007:
When it is ONLY ONE PERSON it is not a story, but when it’s a common story, that one person’s story is very relevant.
I had my home on the market this summer (outside SF). I took myself out of the market because I had so much traffic and barely any offers and was competing with REO’s and distresses buyers in nearby areas. I finally got out when two things happened to make matters worse:
1) the quality of inventory declined as other people with good properties took homes off the market
2) the credit crunch made the chance of an offer going sour increase greatly
3) having open houses and lockboxes for a month was one thing (and not fun)…having them for two months and possibly more (due to a tenuous contract offer) was untenable.
So I got out. This market has all kinds of unpleasantness. Mortgage brokers steer you towards the highest rate you are willing to pay, sometimes switch you to programs you never wanted, but once under contract you feel tied when they switch you without warning…meanwhile your agent is telling you to accept a low asking price on your sale while telling you that to get the property you want you should offer close to asking on the other.
In the final analysis, I discovered if I did everything that was being recommended (loans, prices, etc.) I would not be able to afford to sell and buy.
I had an honest agent who is a friend of the family and previously I used another agent who was also honest and when he could have made a sale while a seller was jerking me around, advised me to walk. I think these agents are not well represented by NAR’s constant cheerleading and would do better with an NAR that supported strict licensing and ethics such that it is not so easy to become an agent.
My real issue has been with mortgage brokers and I have not closed or nearly closed a deal with one that I would go to again. They have played games with my application, have promised me loans that I wouldn’t be able to get, have steered me to undesirable loans that made them more money (despite my downpayments, equity and 800+ FICO scores).
In the end, I would say that my dealings with mortgage brokers were so negative that was a critical factor in losing confidence. When they promise you a deal that the market simply won’t support, there’s a catch or there’s no deal like that.
Much has got to change in the real estate process to make me ever want to go through it again. You can’t just add some curb appeal to the process to make this better, you’ve got to fundamentally change this so it’s not a racket anymore for so many operators.