Open Letter: Are BLIND Bidding Wars part of unfair & deceptive business practices?
Sent this email two weeks ago, and still have not received a response even though a similar effort caused Barron’s to tone down their headline — removing the words “on Fire” from their original shown below:
https://twitter.com/RealEstateCafe/status/1302001043258118145?s=20
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Dear Elected Official,
First, sincerely appreciate the attention and dedication you’re investIng to protect residents from COVID-19. Your care and dedication to public service is shining brightly.
Have any constituents expressed concerns about how the pandemic is impacting the real estate market? The meme is that there is low inventory but the screenshots in the tweet below document otherwise:
https://twitter.com/realestatecafe/status/1298027772665827339?s=21
In addition to a five-fold increase in active listings, FAILED listings – Expired, Canceled & Temporarily Withdrawn listings have *** more than DOUBLED *** during the summer (June 1st til today, 8/21) rising from 47 in 2019 to 100 listings this year.
That’s more than one per day.
If more buyers knew that, think they’d be eager to rush a blind offer on a three-day listing — particularly during a pre-election pause? At what point we call those kind of sales practices price gouging?
The Fall housing market starts after Labor Day, less than two weeks from now. Despite the statistics above, some real estate brokerages will use hidden listings and high pressure sales techniques will try to create a false sense of urgency while hiding what’s really happening with inventory.
What’s the best way to raise the visibility of these unfair and deceptive business practices; and if warranted, bring a Chapter 93A action against those who manipulate homebuyers in BLIND bidding wars — particularly during a pandemic?
https://twitter.com/realestatecafe/status/1298296419808415747?s=21
My hope is that some of those organizations that came together to protect tenants from eviction can join a call for an Emergency Real Estate Transparency Act to empower homebuyers to make informed decisions this Fall.
Fell free to share this open letter as my plan is to publish some version on the internet. See related tweets already online:
Responses