{"id":2545,"date":"2008-01-28T12:22:40","date_gmt":"2008-01-28T19:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2545"},"modified":"2008-01-28T17:04:55","modified_gmt":"2008-01-29T00:04:55","slug":"the-odysseus-medal-a-hopeless-attempt-to-regain-what-she-lost-her-sense-of-trust-and-self-reliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2545\/the-odysseus-medal-a-hopeless-attempt-to-regain-what-she-lost-her-sense-of-trust-and-self-reliance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odysseus Medal: “A hopeless attempt to regain what she lost: her sense of trust and self-reliance”"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the benefits of The Odysseus Medal competition, for me, personally — especially since we started echoing the Long List of nominees<\/a> — is that I don’t feel as much pressure to weigh in on every last thing. I’ve been writing software in my spare moments for the last two weeks, and, amazingly enough, the world spins on without me. Last week we had Roost.com launch, which I wrote about, but we also had a huge Fed rate cut and the extended coverage of the Ummel lawsuit<\/a>, and I got to coast on both stories, on the strength of the great work done by other voices in the RE.net.<\/p>\n

And, as it works out, this week is an all-Ummel Odysseus Medal Awards post.<\/p>\n

We start with Glenn Kelmann, who wins The Odysseus Medal this week for “114 Pounds of Absolute Perserverance”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Once a buyer’s agent begins making representations about price, it seems possible for him to make negligent representations about price. This doesn’t mean an agent can’t make representations about price, and can’t be wrong when he does. He just can’t be negligently wrong, by withholding material information that a reasonable person would want to see. If the Ummels’ agent did that, he should pay for it.<\/p>\n

Of course, since we have no idea from our seat in the peanut gallery what really happened between Ms. Ummel and her agent, the whole debate is academic. The only undeniable fact is that the lawsuit that Ms. Ummel is pursuing, at greater cost than she is likely to recoup, must be like all other forms of revenge, a hopeless attempt to regain what she lost: her sense of trust and self-reliance.<\/p>\n

In this respect, the case just illustrates the perils to both parties when a client outsources her brain to a real estate agent, or a stock-broker, or anyone else trying to sell something. It is why we dislike the paternalistic mindset occasionally used to justify brokerage fees, in which talk of “hand holding” is not seen as condescending, fears about “the single biggest purchase in your life” are stoked, and agent attempts to be persuasive during Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the benefits of The Odysseus Medal competition, for me, personally — especially since we started echoing the Long List of nominees — is that I don’t feel as much pressure to weigh in on every last thing. I’ve been writing software in my spare moments for the last two weeks, and, amazingly enough, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,6,5,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blog-carnivals","7":"category-blogging","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-the-odysseus-medal","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1835,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1835\/easy-nomination-form-for-the-odysseus-medal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2545,"position":0},"title":"Easy nomination form for The Odysseus Medal","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I built a quick and easy nomination form for The Odysseus Medal competition. You can continue to use the BlogCarnivals entry form, but I put this together to make it easier to nominate posts written by other people. The form lives at the top of The Odysseus Medal information page,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1907,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1907\/last-call-for-odysseus-medal-nominees\/","url_meta":{"origin":2545,"position":1},"title":"Last call for Odysseus Medal nominees","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I changed the graphic at the top of the page for the better part of last week, an homage to Kris Berg's excellent post, but I don't think anyone noticed. We have a bunch of great entries for The Odysseus Medal, but only you know what we're missing out on.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1961,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1961\/dont-forget-to-nominate-the-posts-you-love-most-for-the-odysseus-medal-competition\/","url_meta":{"origin":2545,"position":2},"title":"Don’t forget to nominate the posts you love most for the Odysseus Medal competition","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been occupied by matters funereal, but life goes on. The deadline for Odysseus Medal nominations is today at 12 Noon PDT\/MST. If you know of something worthy of recognition, your own work or someone else's, nominate it now while it's on your mind. Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1926,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1926\/deadline-looms-for-odysseus-medal-competition-act-now-or-weep-incessantly-sunday-afternoon\/","url_meta":{"origin":2545,"position":3},"title":"Deadline looms for Odysseus Medal competition: Act now or weep incessantly Sunday afternoon","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There are already a couple dozen nominees for this week's Odysseus Medal competition. What are we missing? Only you know for sure. The deadline for nominations is Sunday at 12 Noon PDT\/MST, but if you know of something orbiting the skirts of perfection, your own work or someone else's, nominate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2216,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2216\/day-of-the-delay-of-the-odysseus-medal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2545,"position":4},"title":"Day of the delay of The Odysseus Medal . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm getting ready for the BloggerCon event at the NAR Convention and I've run myself out of time. I'll post the judging for The Odysseus Medal tomorrow morning. I'll leave the voting open for The People's Choice Award until I'm ready to post. In the mean time, although I've shown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1874,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1874\/have-a-great-labor-day-but-dont-leave-town-without-submitting-your-odysseus-medal-entries\/","url_meta":{"origin":2545,"position":5},"title":"Have a great Labor Day, but don’t leave town without submitting your Odysseus Medal entries","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Cathy just made me think of this, bless her beautiful soul. Deadline for this week's Odysseus Medal competition is Sunday at 12 Noon PDT\/MST. The People's Choice voting is Sunday afternoon as usual, so take a break form your end of summer reveling to cast a ballot. But take care\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}