[quote=bearishgurl][quote=drboom]Those few of us who really are natives know far more about the area than any agent.[/quote]
drboom, I don’t know where you’re from, but here, in Chula Vista, 91910, most of the residents have lived here all of their lives.[/quote]
Fletcher Hills, 92020. I grew up in the house my grandparents bought in 1946 or 1947. It’s about a mile from the house my wife and I bought last year. We’re both true second generation natives, which is odd enough to draw comment, so this subject has come up before.
Your opinion isn’t supported by either my or my wife’s experience (she’s a native too, and she’s a teacher so she sees all the transplants when they arrive with their kids) or by looking at a chart of the county’s population over time: it has tripled since 1960 and doubled since 1980. All of that increase is “immigration”.
My mother-in-law stopped by briefly while I was writing this. She grew up a mile or two east of here, and she emphatically agrees with me.
I’ll see your transplant opinion and raise you three native opinions and some hand-waving at census numbers. 🙂
I agree that an agent with twenty years in the same area–a rare bird indeed–would know a thing or two. As it happens, our agent had about that much time in the area were interested in. But I have my own and my extended family’s knowledge to rely upon, and they’ve been around here for over seventy years. Our agent, who did a terrific job on the tasks we needed him for, was completely useless to us for research … because he is a transplant who settled here when he retired from the navy and went into RE in the late 80s. 🙂
I’ll stand by what I said even if you know of some exceptions. The reason I brought it up at all is because you were so emphatic that “civvies” absolutely require professional research services. It ain’t so.
