I’ve noticed that real estate agents here in Arlington, Virginia, are increasingly moving from typical puffery in their listings to outright misrepresentation. A house around the corner from me was listed as “two blocks from metro.” I count five and a half long blocks, a ten minute walk (the house, an old bungalow without much going for it, nevertheless sold during its first week on the market for more than $500K). Another agent listed a house as “walking distance to metro” that was in fact 1.4 miles from the metro. When I challenged him on this, he insisted that the owner of the house walks to the metro every day, and added that “who knows whether walking distance means 10 minutes or 20 minutes?” I pointed out to him that walking 1.4 miles in even 20 minutes would require a pace of 4.2 miles per hour, which is more like a slow jog than a walking pace. I won’t even look at houses anymore when I recognize such misrepresenations. Why would I want to do business with a dishonest agent?
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