Yo’s pet peeve of the day: Real estate agencies that display row upon row of available listings in their front windows with no prices at the bottom of the listing. You know who you are, Century 21 Salamanca Realty, 2075 N. Western Ave. It wastes so much of a homebuyer’s time and energy.
Clearly, it’s a strategy designed to lure the homebuyer in, so that the agents can make contact and worm their way into becoming the buyer’s agent, but an exhaustive poll by Yo (I canvassed a couple of friends for their opinions) has revealed that a wall of priceless listings is a turnoff.
Perhaps the agents believe that a buyer will come in, find out that the property she is interested in has an asking price that is just a tad more than she’s prequalified for – I don’t know, say $100,000 or so – and the buyer will simply have a chat with her understanding mortgage broker and all will be well. Or maybe she can just throw the difference on her credit card.