(no subject)
Tried to buy a fixer-upper house at auction today. Fascinating process. The auctioneer would pretend to see people bidding in the crowd to jack the price up. Sometimes conducting whole imaginary price wars where no actual people ever bid. I saw one real guy increase his 'winning' big by $60,000 bidding against another bidder behind him that didn't actually exist. About half of the homes had completely fake auctions (auctioneer even banged down his gavel at the end) but the homes remained unsold. You could tell because when a real person won a bid they'd send a young chick called an 'escort' (really!) out to capture them and do the financial stuff out of the room.
So, yeah, I bid and then was blown out of the water by $100,000 worth of bids from the auctioneer's imagination. Whilst one of the suited dudes came and berated me for giving up so quickly after having spent so long waiting for my house to come up (5 hours or so). He ran away when I told him that I hadn't realized that there would be so many faked bids without even trying to argue.
Apparently they put in a law that stopped the auctioneers from stuffing the crowds with fake bidders. Now the guys in suits just run up to/point at random people in the crowd and pretend that they're getting bids even when they're not. (Confirmed by talking to some of the people they were pretending to make bids for.)
So much for the free market, price discovery, etc.
And I could only see what was going on because someone took my chair whilst I was in the bathroom and I ended up standing at the side near the front. A real estate agent that was bidding standing next to me, that was bidding herself, commented how no-one was bidding and it was true... I hadn't even noticed, and I call myself a cynic...
I reckon that if the banks are wealthy enough to stage fake auctions they for sure don't need tax dollars. And that bidding on your own sales (either the seller or the auction house representing the seller) should obviously be illegal. As should routinely posting an opening price far below the sellers reserve. Indeed I see very little reason to allow a sellers reserve different from the opening bid. Especially with houses where you actually have to expend a lot of time and money investigating the soundness of the house.
So, yeah, I bid and then was blown out of the water by $100,000 worth of bids from the auctioneer's imagination. Whilst one of the suited dudes came and berated me for giving up so quickly after having spent so long waiting for my house to come up (5 hours or so). He ran away when I told him that I hadn't realized that there would be so many faked bids without even trying to argue.
Apparently they put in a law that stopped the auctioneers from stuffing the crowds with fake bidders. Now the guys in suits just run up to/point at random people in the crowd and pretend that they're getting bids even when they're not. (Confirmed by talking to some of the people they were pretending to make bids for.)
So much for the free market, price discovery, etc.
And I could only see what was going on because someone took my chair whilst I was in the bathroom and I ended up standing at the side near the front. A real estate agent that was bidding standing next to me, that was bidding herself, commented how no-one was bidding and it was true... I hadn't even noticed, and I call myself a cynic...
I reckon that if the banks are wealthy enough to stage fake auctions they for sure don't need tax dollars. And that bidding on your own sales (either the seller or the auction house representing the seller) should obviously be illegal. As should routinely posting an opening price far below the sellers reserve. Indeed I see very little reason to allow a sellers reserve different from the opening bid. Especially with houses where you actually have to expend a lot of time and money investigating the soundness of the house.