The bigger problem in the residential market are rich assholes who swoop in with all-cash offers. In the past 7 years we’ve unloaded two houses in the Seattle area. Each had multiple offers. In both cases we picked the buyer who looked solid but was financing the purchase. Our agent said “I am legally obligated to tell you that all cash is preferable to a financed offer.” We told them why we were doing it and they were onboard—but agents are actively steering people to the all cash offer not because it’s better for the HOUSE or for the neighborhood, but because it’s a quicker route to their commission.
There were a whole bunch of rules implemented anonymizing offers because they were worried about discrimination. That ended up tilting things even more to rich people—you don’t know the identity of the buyer, so it could be a private equity firm, or a drug lord laundering money. To really halt discrimination, the financing should also be left out of the offer info—sell the house to the highest bidder.
The bigger problem in the residential market are rich assholes who swoop in with all-cash offers. In the past 7 years we’ve unloaded two houses in the Seattle area. Each had multiple offers. In both cases we picked the buyer who looked solid but was financing the purchase. Our agent said “I am legally obligated to tell you that all cash is preferable to a financed offer.” We told them why we were doing it and they were onboard—but agents are actively steering people to the all cash offer not because it’s better for the HOUSE or for the neighborhood, but because it’s a quicker route to their commission.
There were a whole bunch of rules implemented anonymizing offers because they were worried about discrimination. That ended up tilting things even more to rich people—you don’t know the identity of the buyer, so it could be a private equity firm, or a drug lord laundering money. To really halt discrimination, the financing should also be left out of the offer info—sell the house to the highest bidder.