Adventures in Cyber House Buying

[MCWebsite.Staff]

** This thread discusses the article: Adventures in Cyber House Buying **
** This thread discusses the Content article: Adventures in Cyber House Buying **
0

[Guest.Visitor]

Adventures in Cyber House Buying

** This thread discusses the article: Adventures in Cyber House Buying **
Another excellent, perceptive, thought-provoking column! Cyber House Buying is another example of some (most?) people around us lacking Critical Thinking. They're responsible for our collective downward spiral, as victims of the Nigerian lottery, Spam in our Inbox, gasoline-saving "Vornado"s, infomercials & commercials = gospel, Bush/Cheney et al WMD claims -- false or dubious claims and promises are unquestionably accepted and legitimized by thousands of buyers/suckers. Even after Bush (e.g.) is exposed, they will readily accept his next WMD claim with a still open mind. As cynic comedian George Carlin explains in "Life Is Worth Losing", the rich -- who own the media and with it have made the "Stupids" an extended family -- dislike Critical Thinking. We are collectively gullible; they know it and we're doomed as a species if we "stay the course". Another gem of a column! Thank you, Joel!

[Guest.Visitor]

Adventures in Cyber House Buying

** This thread discusses the article: Adventures in Cyber House Buying **
Joel, I personally known many people who bought homes thru internet and are quite happy with them. The lastest one being my cousin from San Francisco. When his company offered him a transfer to their headquarters in Roswell (North of Atlanta, GA) he was thrilled to find how cheap good homes are. He hunted for a good location after due consultation for me (I live in Alpharetta, twin city of Roswell), went to for a choice builder Pulte, and then did everything from buying design to choosing tiles and furniture thru internet. You might say, "Well Pulte is not just another builder, so trusting him is no big deal but I am speaking about buying the unknown." Frankly I do not know who might be the people who would buy "a home without doing the homework". However there is always a degree of trust. It is no more different than my buying a book on websphere simply because it is written by Joe Pluta, or an SQL book because it is written by Mike Cravitz, or an RPG book by Jon Paris / Susan Gartner. Yes I am the one who would go to borders and read the dust cover and read half of the book before deciding to buy it. Sometimes lazy guys get away with their trusting

[H.Boldt]

Adventures in Cyber House Buying

** This thread discusses the article: Adventures in Cyber House Buying **
Joel wrote: "Technology is a wonderful thing. It can greatly improve our lives. Just don't trust it worth a damn." You do like to blame technology, don't you Joel? But the problems are not with technology. Technology may enable bad purchasing decisions, but that can happen without technology, and indeed has happened even before computers came onto the scene. Take cars as an example. Some significantly large number of people buy cars without taking a test drive. (I forget the exact number, but it's something like 40%!) I once took a ride in the front passenger seat of a Camaro, and it wasn't the most comfortable experience. Although I'm not the tallest person around, my head was touching the ceiling. The weird thing was that the driver was a good 3 inches taller than me! I was too polite to ask if he had test driven the car before he bought it. The flip side, of course, is that technology can help people make more informed decisions. If you have any doubts about a product, just do a Google search. For example, as you probably know, my personal web site contains a number of pages of information about your city, Toronto. Now and then, I get e-mails from out-of-towners looking for accomodation in Toronto asking about the safety of particular neighborhoods. You can't always expect a landlord to provide truthful answers to that question, but using the internet, you can often find reasonable third party advice. Cheers! Hans

[Guest.Visitor]

Adventures in Cyber House Buying

** This thread discusses the article: Adventures in Cyber House Buying **
Hans, I bought a car over the internet. The thing is, I had driven a Honda Accord many times and "Consumer Report" magazine had ranked it best sedan once again. What could go wrong with an Accord, Civic, Odessey, Sienna, Corolla, or Camary?