One way to try and hoodwink buyers is for their broker representatives to provide a false reality check.
I hadn’t heard the phrase “pinballing” before reading in account of the tactic by Kenneth R. Harney in the Washington Post. He defines it this way:
A setup or pinball property is a house listed with an unrealistically high asking price that is visited by lots of agents and shoppers but that attracts no offers.
The idea is to set up the buyer to see a well-priced property as having good value and then spring to make an offer.
Heaven knows that our Manhattan housing market has had an ample share of overpriced apartments and townhouses. Sometimes they surprise us, especially now that inventory is tight and both Wall Street and foreign money tends to be loose.
But a broker who shows such a property without acknowledging that the price doesn’t reflect the market is a broker who shouldn’t be allowed to represent anyone’s best interests.
Tomorrow: Rejection dejection
To take your own bite out of the Big Apple, you have the option to search all available properties privately.
Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022
M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201
Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
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