The Neighborhood Seer

August 9th, 2007 categories: For Agents, For Buyers, For Sellers, Lake Tahoe Real Estate

The Neighborhood Real Estate SEER.

What to do with the Neighbor who knows the Real Estate Market Better Than Anybody.

WE'VE all got one of these, and certainly every Buyer and Seller has one of them too. This is the neighborhood know it all, that one, ever present real estate pontificator who knows what you should do with your house better than you do.

How to Drum up the SEER:
The question is not how does one find him, the neighborhood Seer will find you. The bait to catch him, it’s always a sure thing, and it’s kinda like the drive of an alpha male buck in mating season, is either put up a For Sale sign in front of your house, or just mention to any neighbor at all that you are thinking of selling. Then Presto, as if abracadabra-inspired magic… out of a self aggrandizing omniscient cloud, the Seer instantly appears.

How to know it’s the SEER:
The seer likes to talk. The sound of their own voice is… well, subordinate perhaps to only the ungulate-rut instigation of his mating season desires. The Seer will tell you he knows more about the real estate market than anybody. He will justify his superior knowledge, like an anxiously and only recently separated identical twin, because he has a friend that’s a real estate agent who tells him everything. Here’s some of the things the Seer usually says:

  • “Your house is listed too low.” (And "too high")
  • “My real estate friend is a better agent than yours. You should call him.”
  • “The house down the street just sold for __________ (fill in the amount).
  • “You should sell for more.”
  • “My agent friend can get you this much __________.” (fill in the amount)
  • “My friend told me prices are up.”
  • “Your house isn’t being marketed right.”
  • “Your agent hasn’t shown you all the comps. Mine will.”

Unconditional Surrender from the Neighborhood Know it AllWhat to do during the SEER’s monologue:
The first thing is it’s boring. The kind of boring that would have made someone want to commit suicide during the renaissance. Yawning won’t do. Neither will nodding your head perfunctorily. Immedciate flight is an answer, but it must be early, before the harangue gets up to full speed. The Seer in full stentorian frenzy has been known to follow folks into their house. The need for genuflected attention is insatiable. And it’s all downhill from there. There’s nothing else to do but fall on the floor, wave a white flag and turn in one’s sword in unconditional surrender.

What kind of mischief does the SEER stir up:
A lot of it usually. What’s unfortunate is the neighborhood know it all does not necessarily know it all, or have all the facts. Much of the time a seer’s discourse is rumor, assumptions or partial information. We’ve always thought it odd that the Seer knows more than an agent does… without access to the mls, our training, continuing education, professional level credentials or state laws and regulations. Anyway, it’s a mystery. Something to chalk up to the horns of a dilemma… not a buck. Anyway, things the Seer stirs up usually have to be fixed, with sometimes much discussion, and much wasted time. They usually fall among the following:

  • The Listing Agent and The Seller.
  • The Buyer’s Agent and The Buyer.
  • Both of the Agents involved in a transaction.


You can't make all SEERS disappear.How to make the SEER disappear:
A fail safe solution is marketable stuff. Unfortunately it doesn’t exist, and whatever works once with one Seer doesn’t always work with another. A fake petit -mal seizure might do the trick. This is full-tilt, backyard, over-the-fence filibuster we’re talking about. Not even the threat of having small pox, or chronic contagious venereal disease will usually get them to go away. There is really no easy way out. Unless of course one decides to move.

And moving out is the case here, because the reason for the move is to get away from the neighborhood know it all. But here’s the kicker, there’s more of them waiting with baited breath in the new neighborhood. And all a new homeowner has to do to find the new Seer is show up in a moving truck, take down the For Sale sign and start moving in. Then Presto… well, you know the rest.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 12:47 am and is filed under For Agents, For Buyers, For Sellers, Lake Tahoe Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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