Trojan I guess theoretically it is possible yet unlikely. Think about it the other way. My favorite example is the home around the corner from me in Scripps. I will not use the street name here but it is a type of wine with an R….Anyways I was enraged that some bobo bought it for what they paid last year. It was a flip. The home was purchased in the low 600’s and purchased for close to 800 maybe a bit more or less as I haven’t looked at the tax roll for awhile. The guy paid cash!!!
This was a TOTAL softball. This is what happens when buyers do not study the data or conversely the agent does not study the area right?
So let’s take your example. A blogger wants to buy a home in a particular subdivision so he invests alot of time and energy nuking the area…Could he succeed in actually lowering the comps? I guess it is arguable that he could but if the neighborhood was of decent quality and it was priced to sell the homes would sell. If I had a client looking at the neighborhood and they asked me why homes were not selling I would look at the data, not look at the blogs.
It is a tough call. Virtually all of my buyers ask me the same question:
What do you think of the price?
My answer is always the same. I think the price is to high and that it will depreciate in the future until we hit bottom.
So I don’t really think that the blogosphere has enough clout to manipulate real estate pricing. I think there are way to many savy people out there who would jump on inventory that fell prey to that.
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I think that I fall on a different side of the coin with respect to posting public data. I know Rus and I have a bit different opinion there. Once upon a time a Carmel Valley home that I was involved with popped up on BMIT. I was the selling agent, represented the buyer, who had purchased the home from a private party who had purchased the home at trustee sale.
So my client got a smoking price on the deal and the home was flagged and highlighted on BMIT. I didn’t really even know until someone had actually discussed that home here on Piggington. So when I went to BMIT I put in a long post that actually stated the facts. I think JPINPB had initially brought up the post and I was pissed at first and then cooled down. I guess to someone on the outside it could look bad. With all of that said, even though there were ALOT of IDIOTIC statements and presumptions, there was nothing that would have been litigation worthy in the entire thread.
Think of it this way… how many times have there been posts on here about suspicious transactions? ALOT. most of them were harmless ignorance on the part of the posters but every so often one of them indeed rang true.
Anyways personally I am sorry to see BMIT go because I think the owner of the site is indeed a good guy. I do agree that there is an obligation to try to stick to the facts and avoid speculation and that is where things get quite difficult. Could a sophisticated scheme work with many people rather then one poster. I suppose.
