What area do you work? I’m seeing multiple offers on just listed property and lots of activity in the last 30 to 45 days.

Roubini has certainly been a lot more open minded as to what was happening in the economy than most other economists. Unfortunately, I think his political leanings are steering him off course recently. He has fully bought into the belief that “good” government intervention can save us, and that Obama has a chance of turning things around.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there is ANYTHING policy makers can do to prevent a veritable depression at this point. Additional stimulus/bail-outs will do nothing but prolong the downturn and put the nation is a worse fiscal situation.

That’s not the situation I’m describing. I’m talking about attorneys that give yes/no answers to questions they don’t know the answer to because they don’t want to admit to their client that they don’t know.

I remember something one of my professors said. He said people think attorneys know the law. That they can call up with a question, and answering it would be as easy as answering what the speed limit is on Roosevelt between NE 45th and 50th. Many real life situations that confront attorneys simply don’t have that clear of an answer.

Is it a good time to sell a house or a good time to buy a house, generally speaking? You should have an answer to that…of the top of your head.

The attorney’s off the top of their head response, determines if the expense of further research is warranted.

If a buyer walks into your office and says they make $28,000 a year, have $10,000 cash, and want to buy a three million dollar house…you should have an off the top of your head response. You shouldn’t need a lender to get in the mix.

If a seller calls you to their home and your gut reacition before having seen the house was it was likely worth about $650,000, the owner opens by saying they want to sell their house for $2.6 millions, and you didn’t see a pot of gold in the foyer…you should have an off the top of your head response.

Your passion is different than mine. All agents can answer something off the top of their head. Each agent has a different group of things they can answer off the top of their head.

I can answer that the 1/3 of sellers in the top price range in Kirkland are going to be climbing a very steep uphill battle for some time to come, because I make it my business to know that “off the top of my head” by doing scads of research continually. You can answer something else off the top of your head…maybe about how a buyer should have known the roof needed replacement without anyone having advised them of same in advance.

If a builder comes to you to find some vacant land to build 100 homes…you better have some idea as to whether those 100 homes can sell at what that builder expects them to sell for…and how long that will take.

Knowing our business is not puffery. It is a prediction based on facts, not a wild ass guess. Getting those factso is an everyday event (not when the situation arises) the same as reading the Wall Street Journey every day is necessary if you want to be a stock broker.

You do someting better than me…I do something better than you…what you do better than me is not nonsense just because I do not choose to focus in that direction.

I think I’ll dip back into the legal world to respond to this one. Clients of lawyers ask many questions. Contrary to popular belief, many questions cannot be answered by an attorney off the top of their head, even for questions within their specialty. The answer requires research, because specific facts can change the result. Some questions simply cannot be answered with certainty (e.g. our prior discussion of Lease/Purchase agreements). Unfortunately, some attorneys tend to give off the top of the head answers that they don’t know. They’re afraid to admit to their clients that they don’t know the answer to a question.

I think the same is true of agents. They’ll give an answer as to the future of prices because they’re afraid to admit they don’t know. Some clients expect them to know (as is evidenced here). The agent wants to live up to their client’s expectations rather than risk giving them an answer indicating no one really knows.

The funny thing is, I never had a law client react negatively to my telling them it was a question I had to research or a question without a certain answer. And I’ve yet to have a real estate client react negatively to my telling them that no one knows the future. I think they appreciate honesty over puffing.

Not really. About 1/3 of listings sell within 30 days, even in this market. The other 2/3rds just sit there. Some of them never sell. Pricing is controlled by the listings that sell. The ones that don’t sell are practically irrelevant (except as perhaps a warning to other agents/sellers not to price that high).