“I’m not saying people are nuts, but you’ll never catch a dog adopting a dog…”
I was interviewed yesterday on the future prospects of the big-name iBuyers, whose numbers are everyday augmented by many, many no-name iBuyers. I’m a bear, of course. When the market turns, the slow-selling pontificating poindexters will discover why less-pedigreed brokers do not own the inventory they represent. Plus which, when the world catches on to The Full Uruguay, American residential real estate could be in decline enduringly.
Worse than all that, worse than everything else is simply this: Employees are not entrepreneurs. Before there’s a fire in the hearth in someone’s new home, there was a fire in a real estate agent’s belly – and if not, the process took too long and cost too much.
The proud-mouthed iBuyers are interesting to me, right now, to see how poorly they sell in an impossibly-easy market for listing brokers. They stand out in any screen of listings, since they are the only listers who can get to double-digit Days-on-Market. The listing histories are always interesting, as are the financial details of the closed sales: By selling poorly and by mismanaging their offers, iBuyers end up with weaker buyers – with financed offers in an all-cash world – frequently paying closing costs.
The question: How do iBuyers matter in my world?
The answer: They don’t.
They’re pawnbrokers, and only a fool would pawn a house in this market. They invariably list too high, so they make my listings look like a bargain to buyers. And because they sell so slowly and so weakly, they make me look like a genius to my sellers. Beyond that, the big-budget iBuyers are just more tricky niche pitches in a world awash in them.
In other news:
Housing Wire: The appraisal gap is complicating deals across the country.
Mike DelPrete: America’s Next Top Real Estate Model: Tracking the Growth of eXp, Redfin, and Compass.
Housing Wire: Rising rates push mortgage applications down for fifth week.
CNBC: Mall vacancies jump at fastest pace on record, hitting new high, as retailers cull store counts.
John Stossel: Biden’s California Dream.
Michael Goodwin: Quality of life plummets, taxes rocket — and New York City faces doom.
PJ Media: Exodus Underway as Record-Shattering Surge of Austin Police Officers Leave the Force.
City Journal: American Bloat Plan: The Biden infrastructure bill is a Democratic wish list of wasteful spending.
