The herald., 1895-06-09
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SUNDAY, JUNE o. 1909.
LET US HAVE THE EXCHANGE

The movement under way to organize
a real estate exchange should be en-
couraged as it will, if properly conducted,
materially aid in placing the business OF
handling real estate in this city upon a
more substantial and satisfactory footing.
The vocation of selling 1.-THE earth - be-
cause of the quantity we have fer sale
and the increasing number OF people
wanting to buy. has becom one OF the
most conspicuous of local busin ess ac-
tivities. 1t has long been conducted here
in a haphazard, irresponsible way and an
honorable, well managed institution of
the kind under consideration Can set the
pace in manners and met hods OF hand
ling realty and buyers that will smooth
out many irritable wrinkles i'll real estate
transactions, reflect credit upon and con-
serve the legitimate interests of real es
tate agents and yield satisfaction to the
honest investor. With an exchange sup
ported by the larger part of those buying
and selling property as agents, the op-
portunities of cheating brokers out of
well earned com issions can be decidedly
minimized. This last named form of dis
honesty is good deal more common in
Los Angeles than some things the penal
code carefully provides for, and live ex-
change could soon make the characters
of the people resorting to it very low
priced articles. 1t could be instrumental
in introducing several other reforms per-
tanning to dirt trading. 1t might, for
instance, abolish the sign nuisance and
induce owners to clean up their proper
ties, especially the vacant lots. A
stranger unacquainted with the city's
real condition would infer from the ap-
palling multiplicity and diversity of
"for sale" signs on exhibition, that the
'boom had just bust, that the town's
foundation had taken the McGinIy
route, and that every soul wanted
to "light out" A similar plenti-
tude of mute but lurd appeals "for some-
body to buy'' in an eastern city would
be indicative of the community's speedy
dissolution. And the effect here upon
the tenderfoot contemplating investment
certainly cannot be encouraging. As
rule people are conservative about buying
what everybody else is apparently crazy
to sell. As the future of our realty mar
ket will depend largely on the readiness
with which the easterner and foreigner
take hold, We should adopt methods of
presenting the goods, of a less pancky
character. Real estate can be sold here
as it is IN almost every other city of con-
sequence, without the assistance of signs.
Owners should do as they do in the other
cities-place their properties in the hands
of reputable and successful agents under
contract allowing the exclusive right of
sale for a specified time and designating
definite commission as compensation
to the agent for his services IN consum-
mating a sale. Explicit instructions
should be given agents not to desecrate
the holdings with board or canvas, but to
find customers through advertising me-
diums apart from the property, and some
personal "hustling," The present meth
I'd or rather lack of method actually de-
ters the investor by alarming or disgust
ing him with the frequency with which
the same properties are presented for con-
sideration; it affords ample scope for all
kinds OF chicanery on the part of unscru-
pulous sellers, buyers and brokers in WAYS
that have become notorious, and gener-
ally produces complications and misun-
derstandings that spoil regulations. ruffie
tempers and reflect seriously upon the
business standing Of the city. With a
certainty as to their power 10 sell and
the recompense for selling, agents would
bestow upon the properties placed on
their books the same personal interest
they give their own holdings, and push
them with energy induced by the assur.
ance of undlsputed rewards for the labor
performed. In time, the deserving and
successful would become evident to the
public and both seller and buyer learn
whom to patronize, the same as IN other
lines. Before long, with this plan fol-
lowed, we would witness more sales with
less friction than ever before.
We would remind the disgruntled Ex-