Below is an example of a comment becoming all too common on Zillow.
“Actually the real investors in Re are hurting big time due to lack of capital and dropping rents!
These clowns are just realtors, drop outs from College and their frat houses!
They cant find cash flow possitve property, funding or tenants!!!!
Realtors are such liars ......What a waste of human flesh!”
Where will Zillow get its income going forward? From real estate professionals. But that’s Zillow’s problem. If they want participation from losers like this at the expense of paying customers, who am I to argue that it’s suicide?
What bothers me is the motivation behind comments like this. Zillow, though, is a microcosm of what is terribly wrong with the ongoing debate regarding the real estate “crisis”, and as I stated in an earlier blog, what is wrong with debating in society in general.
What I am reading over and over on these sites is a desperate insistence on ruin and devastation in real estate. Even the most innocently positive remark gets attacked by the Wolves of Negativity. They hide this insistence on negativity behind the virtuous stance that they are merely purveyors of the nitty-gritty reality of what’s happening now. They claim a moral superiority over the brainless “cheerleaders” of real estate who have a vested interest – those greedy RE agents who will get a COMMISSION!
I don’t believe in their sanctified objectivity for a nano-second. There are several explanations that seem plausible to me, but virtuous truth-telling is not one of them. If the Wolves of Negativity only made claims regarding California (which is where most on these sites are from) I could see their point – a real estate cheerleader in California is like Custer yelling “Take no prisoners alive!” And, I am on the side of anyone whose sentiments expose the over priced market in California that excludes the average homebuyer; however, these humbuggers insist the whole country is in dire straits and refuse to acknowledge even pockets of happy-time without a zillion buts, yets and just-wait-tils.
One explanation is that the “nattering nabobs of negativity” (quoted from Spiro Agnew – does anyone remember him?) suffer from delusions of grandeur and think their small, shrill voices will actually drive prices down so they can pick up a bargain. But this doesn’t explain why they insist on devastation nationwide, unless they are national investors. Another explanation is that misery loves company and they are lonely. The third explanation is political.
I believe the political explanation makes the most sense. There seems to be a concerted effort with election year coming up to portray the US as a failing country on the verge of collapse. Real estate was in the limelight of a strong economy for years and those who hate the Republican administration have bitterly waited for a sign of weakness and now that Florida and the west are showing signs of weakness, they are using this opportunity to bolster the Democrats as the saviors. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a grumpy Republican hammering on Democrat hyperbole and gamesmanship. I was a Democrat in my early years, a Republican after I turned forty, and now I have turned away from both parties in favor of objectivity and free thinking.
I hate to see politics coloring our debate on real estate, but this is exactly what I have witnessed at places like Zillow and in most media coverage. And I hate to see a place like Zillow, who has the opportunity to create a social network of buyers, sellers and professionals where true learning can take place, become infected with political zombies who spew hate, anger and class-envy. One thing I really hate is the mindless and trite denigration of all real estate agents. I know what it takes to succeed in this industry, and I know how my colleagues work to maintain ethics and integrity in this chaotic and rapidly changing field. To Zillow I say – squash this infection before it turns your site into a handful of cynical political goons patting their own butts and mumbling obscenities to passersby. To you all, I say, keep up the good work and Merry Christmas! To the media, I say – go get a real job.
Mike from Savannah