Overnight News: What do you do if your real estate agent can’t read?

Do you think I’m joking in the headline? I’ve never loved the basic preparation of my fellow real estate agents. When I started, I wrote a satiric essay on checking your agent’s math. By now it would be wise to check you agent’s English – and logic.

Mostly, the offers I take are perfect: We sign them as is because the agent knows what it will take to get us to sign them as is – often because I tell them what we’re looking for. But I see a lot more offers than I take, and, for many of them, I would have to recast them by addendum to achieve the Buyer’s Agent’s putative intent – and I am not any of these agents’ broker.

I suspect the rise of the team model is compensation for salespeople who can schmooze but can’t spell. And if you can’t connect the dots between podcasts and illiteracy – there’s a brand new podcast just for you!

How can you tell if your agent can’t read? Well, he can’t write, so that’s easy. But even if he seems to be able to sling a sentence or two, if he can’t spell, he can’t – or doesn’t – read. We retain our memory of how words are spelled by reading them – a lot, every day. People who don’t read spell poorly.

So now what? Duh! Seek elsewhere. An agent who can’t read well has no idea what he’s getting you into.

In other news:

CNBC: More Americans are looking to move as remote work gains acceptance during Covid pandemic.

CNBC: December home prices rose 10.4%, the biggest gain in 7 years, Case-Shiller says.

American Banker: Fed sounds alarm on commercial real estate, business bankruptcy.

Stephen Moore: The Blue States Are Now the Beggar States.

City Journal: Should Public Transit Be Free?

City Journal: Broadway’s Annus Miserable: Live theater has been devastated by the pandemic, and its return remains uncertain.

Margot Cleveland: Supreme Court Denial Of 2020 Election Cases Invites ‘Erosion Of Voter Confidence’.