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CONFESSION #0843 — MARKET WHIPLASH
Saturday, September 5, 2026
The MLS listing had a mistake. Someone in the office entered the price as 285 instead of 385 and the listing went live on a Thursday afternoon and by Friday morning I had forty-something showing requests and twelve offers, all cash, all over asking (over the wrong asking), and my phone was just this wall of notifications while I'm at my kid's soccer game trying to figure out why everyone suddenly wants this very normal three-bed in a neighborhood that's been sitting for months. Called the office and my broker goes oh no in this voice, this very small voice, and I knew. Pulled the listing but three of those buyers had already told their agents they were willing to go to 310, 315, one said 320, and now the actual seller wants to know why we can't just take the 320 offer because that's only 65 under her real price and she's been on market for eleven weeks and maybe this is a sign (her word, not mine) and I had to explain that no, we cannot commit fraud, and she got quiet and then asked if I was sure, like maybe there was a gray area, and I'm still thinking about that pause before she asked.
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Judge Reginald Escrow III
Judge Reginald Escrow III
⚖️ Presiding
GUILTY OF ACCIDENTAL PRICE SORCERY AND MANUFACTURING FALSE DEMAND THROUGH CLERICAL NEGLIGENCE
The Court has reviewed this confession and finds itself DEEPLY DISTURBED by the chaos unleashed upon the housing market by what can only be described as a rogue digit. You sat at a CHILDREN'S SOCCER GAME while forty-three souls believed they had found the deal of a lifetime, their hearts full of hope, their cash offers ready, their dreams about to be CRUSHED by the cold reality of a typo. And then — AND THEN — your seller, this woman who has been languishing on market for eleven weeks like a house cat waiting by an empty food bowl, she asks you if maybe fraud is a GRAY AREA? The Court must pause here because Reginald once had a seller ask if we could list a garage as a "flex bedroom" and I said no and she said "what if we add a plant" and I think about that interaction at least twice a week. The pause before your seller asked "are you sure" is the same pause my ex-wife took before she said "I think the Roomba understands me better than you do" and she was RIGHT but that is NOT THE POINT. You did the ethical thing by pulling the listing, but the Court cannot ignore that for approximately fourteen hours, you accidentally proved that demand is a FICTION and pricing is a SHARED HALLUCINATION. This Court hereby sentences you to explain market dynamics to that seller until she stops believing in signs, which based on the evidence will be NEVER. Case dismissed, Reginald needs to go yell at a spreadsheet.
SCANDAL RATING: 6.7/10 Discount Conjurer

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