VANITY LISTINGS

I don't know about you but lately I've seen some rather silly to absurd commercial listing appearing on MLS.

Now I don't mind a little "puffing" now an then but some real estate professionals apparently have nothing better to do than list anything and at any price!

And where they come up with "prices" is simply beyond my comprehension.

I recently ran across one commercial MLS listing that appeared to have some slight potential and decided to preview it for a client.

Well, besides the address being mis-leading, most of the land was truly under water. In my opinion the property wasn't even worth the assessed value let alone the astronomical asking price.

It was listed at over just slightly $1 million and assessed in the mid $200's. I should have known better. Plus the community hasn't had a close comparable sale is 4 years.This isn't real estate brokerage: it's gambling.

List 10, 20 or 40 properties and something has to sell, right? Wrong.

Unsold listings, of any type, anywhere, unlike fine wine, do not improve with age , especially in this type of value declining market with almost no commercial lending activity, very few leases and almost no sales statewide.

Maybe some individuals who purport to be professionals don't know we are in a recession?

Of late I've also noticed the "days on market." One would think that after 365, 450 or 700 days on the maket plus, the agent and broker would sense the futility of the posting. If real estate hasn't sold in a year or more something is wrong. Very wrong.

Over priced listings are unnecessary clutter. In my opinion they are all vanity!

Perhaps the listing agents and their brokers need to take a real hard look at just how stagnant the commercial real estate market has become in this geographic area of Massachusetts.

But that requires some intelligence, effort, concentration and competency. I know, I'm asking a great deal. Forgive me!

Years ago we use to refer to this as reasonable market research. But obviously in many quarters of the business we have no "reason" left.

Or perhaps it's once again another indication of irrational optimism.

Again and in my opinion, vanity listings hurt the profession, the business and the industry. They also do a great disservice to the property owners and even other agents. It's no wonder why Realtors have such a low approval rating!

Your comments on this subject will be appreciated.

Bill McInerney

PS. In case you don't know it this recession is now very close to severity of the recession of 1973 and may go deeper.