Salutations, Gentle Reader,
I earnestly hope your weekend was restorative and that today is merely the first day of an excellent, productive week. My own Saturday labors had me escorting a couple from Chicago who are relocating to NYC through both luxury high rise buildings to charming renovated walk-ups spanning from Midtown West and Clinton through West Village and NoLita/SoHo to Battery Park. Yesterday, I spent some long overdue catching up with Mike B from St. Luke’s and then continued preparing the text for a business plan for a client in my freelance writing business. Now, we have arrived at Monday, which for this blog means one thing: it’s time for our next consideration of “(Il-)Logical Manic Monday”!
One of the informal fallacies on the taxonomy of logical fallacies is ambiguity. Often seen in real estate ads, I can likely best define this fallacy with an image instead of words:
Do you see the old woman? Wait, do you see the young woman? There you have it. Ambiguity!
Real estate ads are notorious for ambiguity. You’ve seen the lingo: “Steps from…”, “Light filled living room…”, “City view…”, and so on. Think about it. To say that a home is “steps from ____” can never be wrong. Confucius noted that a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step. An Upper East Side studio on York Avenue truly is steps away from Central Park, but it’s a lot of steps. You must step from York to First to Second to Third to Lexington to Park to Madison to Fifth to get to Central Park. Walking it takes almost as much time as it did for me to type all of that.
How about that light filled living room? Does it have floor-to-ceiling windows with a southern exposure? Or does it come with halogen recessed lights? Perhaps it has a dazzling crystal chandelier? Maybe the landlord includes two table lamps. Any of these creates a “light filled living room.”
I like reading “city view” in real estate ads and have had clients who have been very interested in them. Just Saturday, from some of those luxury buildings, I saw some panoramic vistas of Manhattan’s skyline. One corner apartment afforded me an unobstructed view of the Empire State Building, and if I pivoted slightly to my right, there was One World Trade Center. Another apartment I was in technically had a city view, too. It was a rear apartment in a low-rise, and the city view was the back of the building behind us. That building is part of the city. We had a city view. It wasn’t a great city view, but it was a city view nonetheless.
Gentle Reader, please don’t think I am attempting to unduly disparage some of my fellow purveyors of property. Creative writing is an integral part of success in real estate. If you’ve read my posts long enough, you are aware that intentionally deceptive practices in any profession vex me to the point of anger. The unscrupulous agent employs ambiguity for deception. The result? Clients who have been misled doubt all of us. My listing that is between Fifth & Madison that really is a few steps from Central Park, has over-sized windows that allow gentle morning light and a balcony that affords you a breathtaking view of the park and the Chrysler Building takes longer to lease because of the distrust that now exists.
Let the buyer beware–some ads really are too good to be true. Your best first step? Hire a reputable agent to work for you.
Remain calm, and speak well.
Be kind to yourself. Be kind to the planet and the future. Cause no suffering. Go Vegan!
David!
davidwebbblog 