A Neighborhood In Trouble: The Lack of Effort by an Agent

There were three things that struck me about the brand new listing that appeared at the top of my Daily Stat report this morning:

1) Listing Price
2) Only one, crooked picture with a very brief listing description
3) 4 out of 5 Nearby Sales Comps were bank repos

Just on the market, this 2/1 fixer-upper at 2100 27th Avenue in San Francisco is listed at $674,628. Is that some sort of magic number? Is it divisible by 13 or meaningful to any part of the population? Is it the exact amount of the loan? Or is, as I surmise, completely arbitrary? I know I have written before about the prices home sell for, and anything ending in 628 was not on the list. Ridiculous.

Point Number Two is one we continually harp on, harpies that we are. The image of the home, front view only, is listing to the left several degrees. How hard is it to take a picture straight on, or even adjust the angle with Photoshop or other program? It would take one minute. Really. And then there is the listing description, which in total says: “Bank owned starter home in a great neighborhood. Corner house that needs TLC but has lots of potential. . Great natural light. View of the ocean. Deck in the back, Full Basement.” That first sentence was my first clue. Bank-owned, meaning a realtor who is making money for putting in very little effort. Banks are too busy to monitor agents and their services to sell a home, so consequently they do only the bare minimum; like one picture and two lines of text.

Worst of all is the third point, which indicates that this is a neighborhood in trouble. When four out of five comparable sales are for $0, this means bank repo, foreclosure, sadness. Neighboring properties are probably abandoned, with banks not caring about presentation, and sometimes even getting the properties on the market. Of course this could also mean that you could get a good bargain around these parts.

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