There’s always something to howl about.

Monday links: I’m from Missouri . . .

Two of the posts in the Carnival of Real Estate really popped for me. Toby Boyce at Sadie’s Take on Delaware Ohio explores the reasons why a buyer’s market in real estate seems so bizarre. And Bryant Tutas at ActiveRain teaches sellers what they knew all along.

Have I mentioned that Kris Berg is a brilliant real estate weblogger? Steve Berg is no slouch, either, but he suffers Mercury’s misfortune. Mercury is an amazing planet. It was fascinating to Einstein. But just when you’re ready to take account of all of Mercury’s unique features, you catch a glimpse of its golden-haloed neighbor and all conversation stops. Unjustly eclipsed. It ain’t fair, it just is.

The Real Estate Bloggers wonder how the shift in power in Washington will affect real estate. Not my ideal state of affairs, but gridlock can effect the Metternichean stasis: “Govern and change nothing.” More freedom? Bring it on! Lower taxes? Even better! Likelihood? Zero. Absent those, few if any changes in the laws give people the opportunity to plan in a stable environment. We could have done better before this. The challenge now is not to do worse.

Kevin Boer at Three Oceans Real Estate is looking for shady agent stories. As rough as I can be on my fellow practitioners, in the abstract, I tend not to believe stories like these. They always seem to involve friend-of-a-friend transactions, the kind of Baconian distances that induce spontaneous telephone games. I’ve run into dumb Realtors and lazy Realtors. I’ve run into Realtors who thought I was a dumb Realtor. I’ve run into a lot of Realtors who have never discovered that it possible for Realtors to pay small sums of money to make trivial sticking points go away. And I have run into a very great many Realtors who were smart, honorable, efficient and a joy to work with. So: If you want to cry to me about abuse, show me the bruises, show me the scars, show me the hospital records, show me the police report, show me the trial transcript. Everybody has a sob story. I’m from Missouri

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