Wrong and Right

If you want to see into the future, you just have to know where to look. For instance, if you’re going to see into the future of the real estate market, you need look no further than right here. After years of researching magazines, newspapers, and websites for the most reliable real estate prognosticators, I have discovered the best one right here in the North Valley.

The prognosticator of whom I speak, AJ, has a bad track record for predicting the future of the real estate market. He’s been wrong ten years in a row. But that’s the key. AJ is so reliably lousy, all you have to do is listen to his predictions, and then go with the opposite.

I called AJ.

“So what you are telling me,” said AJ, “is that people perceive my conjectures and estimations of market projections, which I base upon thorough research and data compilation, as somehow inaccurate?”

“Yes.”

“In what way do they express such a perception?”

“They say that you are wrong,” I said.

“Preposterous,” he said. “My predictions are many-factored and should not be dismissed in one broad stroke.”

I reminded him of his prediction for the market in 2006, the worst year for a downturn in the history of the market since the Great Depression. His prediction at the time was: “Prices are rising and they won’t stop now. The three most important words in real estate for 2006 are buy, buy, buy.”

AJ admitted to a “slight inaccuracy” in that prediction.

“My words were taken greatly out of context, which caused a knee-jerk reaction among the less enlightened,” he said.

I asked if by “knee-jerk reaction” he was referring to the flaming arrows stuck in his door, and the ‘yelp’ comments on the internet which had to be deleted because of foul language and violent intent.

“Quite unfortunate and very unenlightened.” he said.

I reminded him of his 100% wrong-prediction record from that time until now.

“My words have been taken out of content, and greatly misconstrued,” he said.

I asked him his prediction for 2014.

“The overall economy cannot sustain the slight rise in the real estate market we saw last year. Activity will decrease and we will experience devaluation. I regret being the bearer of bad news.”

Coming from AJ, that’s good news.

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Got a question or comment? I’d like to hear from you. Email escrowgo@aol.com or call 530-680-0817. Doug Love is Sales Manager at Century 21 Jeffries Lydon.