Chatham Chatlist Highlights

Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:30:34 -0400
From: Elliot Cramer
Subject: re: “gouging by the lefties”

re:
“I have owned a house in Chatham County for 25 years and am preparing to sell it. I voted against the LTT because I didn’t want to be gouged by the lefties. I am paying enough in property taxes now.”

–
It is a pretty insignificant tax, four tenths of a per-cent or $600 on a sale of $150,000. Compare this to the 6% real estate commission many pay without complaint, $9,000 on the same sale.– In the United Kingdom, says University of California professor of economics Chang-Tai Hsieh, commissions average just 2%. How can we rank so much lower than a nation built similarly to our own?

The real problem, which Hsieh calls “The Tragedy of the Commissions,” is that all these machinations don’t ultimately serve the broker, much less the public. He suggests that the NAR abandon its attempts to prop up
commissions.
–
Meanwhile, it was reported that “The North Carolina Association of Realtors pledged a multi-million dollar fight against what’s known as the land transfer tax”

It’s the “righties”, stupid — Bunkey Morgan and his crowd that have caused your problems. Look around you.