Posted on April 25th 2017
Real Estate: America's Most Dishonest Industry
By Alex Linder
[ The following is from a blog posting. ]
Real estate is the most shameful industry in the world. No other industry is so characterized by incompetence and deception. If you try to sell a pack of chewing gum on Ebay and you misrepresent it, you have to accept a return. But in real estate, it's not merely acceptable it is par for the course to try to pass off buildings with massive structural problems as quality items. Just redo the interior, throw in granite counters and a new sink, paint it, and maybe the sucker will bite. The used-car industry has always had a poor reputation, but it's real estate that actually deserves that far more. With used cars, you either get a "no warranty" up front, telling you to beware, or you get a checklist of guarantees the shop will stand behind if they prove inaccurate. That's exactly what real estate needs: a 23-point guarantee like Johnny Dingo's Mazda Emporium. Most houses on the market sell within 180 days, maybe even 90 days. So what I propose is possible. You need a warranty on the roof, the foundation, and the support beams/wooden infrastructure. That's the guts of it. The rest is cosmetic. What you have now is a massive waste of time. A seller in any other industry would feel a fool for quite literally not knowing what he or she is selling. All real-estate agents are is door unlockers and isn't-this-greaters. Waste of time. They are rolling the dice someone can be suckered into buying a house without structural integrity, so they can make their few-k commission. In vast swathes of the country, houses under, say 150k, are seriously structurally messed up. And the sellers has done a cheap, quick makeover on the interior to try to trick someone. A more absurd, dishonest industry is inconceivable. Here's a MGTOW with a bunch of financial advice. And starts to touch into minimalism. Let me put it this way. If you want to make a million dollars fairly quickly, here's the way to do it. If I were 18 and in great health, this is what I would do. Get a real estate degree. Find a reliable, capable inspector. Work out a deal to pay him to confirm your checklist for houses you'd like to sell. Build your client base around your being a non-clown agent: SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT HE IS SELLING. Don't try to trick anybody. Sell honestly appraised, honestly inspected, honestly valued housing. Within a few years, you will have a reputation that puts you far apart from the average real-estate dealer, who is not merely a hobbyist but a clown. A clown who at best wastes your time, and at worst is essentially engaged in a form of legal criminality.