Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-01-20
RELIGION AND REAL ESTATE.

OOuSlueIdDle comment mas DeeQ
aroused by the statement of a clergy
man in the revival meetings that no
real estate agent has a right to sell
a piece of property for more than he
would give for it. This statement,
like all general and sweeping state
ments, contains both truth and er-
ror. To carry it to its logical end,
the owner would not have a right
to sell for more than he would give,
and there would be no sales.
The Tidings is far from upholding
Misrepresentation in the selling OF
real estate, any more than it does in
the preaching of the gospel or the
publishing of news, but the state
ment given above seems too sweep
ing. Were all the preachers and all
the real estate men of Ashland taken
to a certain number of pieces of
property and asked to write out what
they would give for it, or even what
they thought it worth, there would
be nearly as many prices set as there
were men. Would each be right in
selling it at a different value, or
would the highest or the lowest gov
ern? Real estate is placed with a
dealer at price fixed by the owner
Should the dealer refuse to offer that
land because in his judgment the
owner has it priced too high?
Future values are merely matter
of foresight or opinion. The writer
once, as agent, sold a man a farm
in South Dakota at SIG per acre. He
! thought the buyer was over-sanguine
as to the possibilities of the land and
country, but believed it his own bus
! mess. Four years later the land was
worth and would sell for $50 per
! acre. Did the writer do wrong in
selling it to that man?
Over-inflation OF values is a psy-
| Geological result Of an era of specu-
lation. 1t has hurt many town and
broken, financially, many an indi-
vidual. 1t does not, however, imply
dishonesty or dishonest intent of any
large portion of the boosters. Many
in Ashland honestly believed three
years ago that the city would be oi
$4,000 by 1915, but they now see
that there was little base for the be-
lief. Yet they proved their belief
real estate agents as well as others
by investing their money.
Whether or not they are doing
right for trying to get out all the
money they put into property, is too
deep for the ordinary mind. And i
those who paid the top price are just
flied in trying to get out what the!
paid, are those who owned propert!
continuously from before the boon
entitled to ask the same price tha
their neighbors are for no bette
property?
misrepresentation Cor declarini
that ground is fertile or is adapted
to certain crops when it is not) i
an entirely different thing from
showing and selling high-pricet
land. For this there is no excuse
But the chasm is wide between tn
man who shows and prices land
even if it is too high in his own es
timation, and the man who deceive
as to the character of the soil, tn
size of the town, the profits in Ger
; tain crops in the past, or any othe
element in the value of the property
=, Two or three years ago the lant
on the north side of Bear creek wa
thought to be worthless for garden
ing and truck farming. d. M. Low
has shown that it can raise world
beating products. Who committed
moral wrong, the man who sold tha
piece of land to Mr.. Lowe or the maj
who blocked sales which might hav
brought other equally good men t.
the valley, by knocking the land?
DO unto others as you would the,
should do unto you" is a two-edgeC
sword. 1t applies just as strongly t,
the man who, without just cause
butts in and spoils another man
deal, or who unjustly impugns tn
motives of another, as it does to tn
selling of a man property for NOR
than it is worth.