The problem with "evidence"

I've often wondered why the filter that different people use to view the evidence surrounding them can render a picture so different than what others would consider reality.

If you've ever read a political blog, or the comments on a political story on a media website, you'll know exactly what I mean. Heck, for that matter, if you've spent enough time on this blog and read the various comments you've likely caught yourself wonder WTF is that guy thinking? I like to think I've inspired a few of those moments for you readers over the past 4 years myself.

I had a couple WTF moments today that left me scratching my head at just how brain farts thoughts get tossed out as evidence in the world of real estate marketing.

On Twitter today I came across a tweet from what I assume to be a well-regarded, well-known and fairly successful REALTOR®. The guy is, of course, bullish on the Vancouver real estate market where he works. He's likely seen first hand evidence of the Hot Asian Money being thrown around on the west side of town his offices occupy. It's beginning to feel like spring, so of course listings and sales activity is increasing. But this tweet didn't just say "Wow, I'm really getting busy, got 2 offers and 4 showings today." Nope. It said something along the lines of this:

Vancouver real estate market is hot. Listing increased its price today from $1.7M to $2.2M.

Face, meet palm.

There's three things far more logical to connect with a listing price increase than evidence of a hot market:

1. A seller who believes their home should fetch $2.2M instead of $1.7M (despite not selling it for $1.7M yet, in other words... face, meet palm)
2. A REALTOR® who took over a listing renewal by telling the vendor the reason why they hadn't sold their home at a lower price was because they were targeting the wrong market (H.A.M. types don't spend less than $2M in case you didn't know)
3. It's a slow morning, and a not yet two cups of coffee thinking one to boot, so the REALTOR® in question found himself hanging out at StartBucks, iPhone4 in hand, trolling for clients, and thought he'd drum up some high priced listings business by tweeting out to his 2,439* followers (2,429** of which are other REALTORS®) something that may or may not be true and something that the majority of people wouldn't think to question the truthiness of anyway.

Let me bring this a little closer to home. I'm checking out a Facebook page. Over on the right is a link from a REALTOR® promising me access to stats I can't get elsewhere. You can see where this is going: I have an addiction to real estate numbers so, despite my reservations, I clicked the link and ended up on the REALTOR®'s blog. OH, THE HORROR! Here's what I found:

A strong economy drives employment, and employment drives immigration. Of course, these new residents need a place to live! With the recovering world economy and emerging asian markets on a real tear, BC is in a great position to take advantage of the next decade.

Apparently H.A.M. is being tossed around in Fernwood, Fairfield and Oak Bay too, not just the west side of Vancouver and Richmond. But the best part of these "statistics" I received after I clicked the Facebook ad was the link that was offered as their source took me to this story here, a story that doesn't mention Victoria specifically, doesn't talk about immigrants, says BC's unemployment rate is up post-Olympics and that Saskatchewan is the shining light of the West with Saskatoon and Regina growing fast due to their proximity to the economic engines of oil and agriculture.

* I made this number of followers up.
** I made this number up too, but if you're on Twitter and follow REALTORS®, you can be forgiven for thinking this is true.