Man Bites Dog — Real Estate Edition
The vast majority of the time — like 99% — when real estate statistics are off, they’re off on the, shally we say . . . “embellished” side.*
So, the 1 1/2 story is billed as a 2 story, the 1,800 square foot home is billed as 2,000, etc, etc.
Which is why it’s noteworthy to encounter a home whose features are under billed, like the 7 Bedroom Minnetonka home being marketed by the listing agent as a 5 bedroom.
The agent’s logic?
They didn’t want to scare off prospective Buyers, who might be overwhelmed by that many Bedrooms.
My take(s): a) they’re right; and b) smart marketing! (note: I’ve never heard of someone being sued for selling more house than they represented).
Beware of Round Numbers; Realtor Radar
Just like there’s no such thing as an NFL quarterback who’s exactly 6′ tall (they’re almost always shorter), in my experience, you seldom see a home whose square footage is exactly a century mark (2,000 FSF, 3,000 FSF, etc.)
In the same vein, male actors who misstate their height invariably exaggerate it. See, Tom Cruise, John Wayne, et al.
There’s even a(n apocryphal?) story that the first cartographers to measure Mount Everest calculated its height as exactly 29,000 feet.
However, they assumed that others would think they rounded it, so they recorded its official height as 29,008 (or some such).
For all those reasons, when I see a round housing number, my “Realtor radar” instantly goes off.
Tom Cruise’s Height
The one exception to the above? (at least, that I’m aware of).
Bill Walton, former NBA star center (and later Stanford law student, where I ran into him).
Apparently, Walton was self-conscious about his 7′ 1′ height, and insisted that he be listed on his team’s roster at only 6′ 11″.
See also: “Question: When is a 1.5 Story Not a 1.5 Story?“; “Misstating a Home’s Square Feet”; and “Exaggerated Square Footage.“
*So, exactly how often are a property’s MLS statistics more than 3% off? (my threshold for tolerance).
I’m not aware of any formal studies, but my Realtor’s gut tells me it happens far less than 5% of the time — at least, in the market I know: the Twin Cities.
