Unloved and unwanted in 2020, bidding war today

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2024 photo

The listing for 5 Pilgrim Drive then priced at $724,999 expired in February, 2020. Four years later it came back on at $899,000, essentially untouched, but with a different broker and a new agent, and it went in 4 days. Obviously, this is a far different market than the just-emerging COVID one, but I believe at least part of these different results can be attributed to the use of a professional photographer instead of the Raveis agent’s inexpert use of her cellphone camera. Houses are first seen by buyers on the Internet, and there was absolutely nothing appealing — in fact, it had to have been a total turn-off — about the presentation in 2021-2022. If you can’t or won’t do a decent job, regardless of the price of a listing, just don’t take it, and find another line of work instead: Red Lobster isn’t, but I believe The Olive Garden is still hiring.

2024

Here are some pictures from the prior agent’s listing:

2019 photo

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THE THIS YEAR, A PROFESSIONAL TEAM TOOK OVER. HERE ARE SOME MORE EXAMPLES:

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Florida Man is going to be hard pressed to reclaim his title in the coming week

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PJ Media’s Stephen Green always concludes his Florida Man Friday feature with a challenge by a random whacko from another state. There were, as always, some strong Floridian contenders this week – the gentleman shown above was one of them — but Green gave the win to his former state, California, and I can’t disagree.

San Francisco nudists save a Brazilian tourist after a "pirate" tried blowtorching him.

It's nice to know that in the 30 years since I left San Francisco, the important things haven't changed. Blowtorch-wielding pirate-hippies are still free to roam the streets and the city's apex predators — middle-aged nudists — are still there to keep the pirate-hippies' numbers in check. 

A story like that can mean only one thing: Florida Man has exactly one week to reclaim his crown of glory in time for the next exciting episode of...

So much for THAT deed restriction

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The 900 sq. ft. cottage at 19 Lakeview Drive (Riverside NoPo) was listed for $2.375 million in 2022, but, though it sat on one acre in the R-12 zone, the listing admitted that “Deed Restriction = one house”. That limited its value somewhat, and it finally sold in 2023 for $1.9 million. Those buyers must have found a way to break the restriction scheme, because an 0.24 portion of the property has just been listed at $1.550.

If, as Joe said in 2019, "Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids", goldarnit, what could explain this?

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chicago teachers on strike

Glenn Reynolds:

TO BE FAIR, THE POINT OF THE MONEY ISN’T EDUCATING STUDENTS, IT’S GRIFT AND GRAFT AND VOTE-BUYING, AND THAT PART HAS SUCCEEDED BRILLIANTLY: Chicago Teachers Union fails to turn $68K per student into even 1 academic win. “Douglass Academy High School spends the most per student compared to any other school in CPS, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2023 Report Card. With that kind of spending, one would expect academic proficiency to soar, but that’s not the case. The most recent test data available shows no 11th grade students could read or perform math at grade level on the SAT in the 2021-2022 school year, and 86% of tested students scored in the lowest proficiency level for reading.”

Yet the parents of these children, in Chicago and around the country, continue to vote for the unholy alliance of politicians and teachers unions, continue to believer that their children can learn without parental supervision and guidance, if only the teachers and administrators in this system are paid some magic, if undiscovered-as-yet number of dollars.

New listing in Riverside

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46 Terrace Avenue, $2.695 million. The owners paid $1.6 million (on a $1.695 asking rice) in June 2020, repainted the interior and … nothing else. I can rationally understand that the price someone paid for something in the past has no particular relevance to what it’s worth today — for instance, I represented buyers who in 2012 paid $7 million for a house that had sold for $11 million during the boom, and anyone who’s dabbled in stocks knows the same thing. But it’s still hard to grasp, sometimes.