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porchwood · 6 years ago

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Hi just so I understand cause i keep waiting for it and it doesnt seem likely to happen have you kind of fallen out of love with wtm? and everlark in general tbh? cause ive been following you for a while now and you always had lil quotes and pictures and things that reminded you inspired you whatever it was about katniss and wtm and now alllll it is is gadge i followed you because personally i love what you did with everlark and im just wondering if thats gone and not foreseeable any time soon?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to answer this… It’s afair question - to a point. If you’re more of a drop-in person (like me) thanlive-on-the-dash, coming back to find my blog awash in Gadge might have beenquite upsetting. There are several reasons for the current state of things:

1. Life has been driving me into the ground since December26, 2013. (Yes, going on six straight years.) If you were a WtM reader from thebeginning, you may recall that I was pretty energetic and prolific in 2012-2013.Oh, there were tough times, but nothing like what started on the aforementioneddate (a car accident where I was in the “bystander” vehicle and it still got totaled)and has continued relentlessly ever since. Sometimes adversity leads to greatcreativity and sometimes it turns you into a depressed, exhausted, reclusivelump, and the past 5+ years have seen periods of both from me. These past 18months have been exceptionally awful (and expensive), resulting in very littlewriting at all, about any pairing.

2. Writing WtM takes a lot out of me. I don’t know whether thisis common knowledge or not, but it’s the gospel truth. I love that world, Ilove that version of Everlark, but every chapter requires so much hard work, itmakes me tired just to think of it. Not to mention, over the past couple of chaptersEverlark have been pushing for more intimacy than the plot/timeline allows, andso I’ve been struggling with how I want to handle that. Do I fight them andstick to the plan? (I can’t advance the timeline for several reasons.) Do I tryto figure out a cheat for them? They’ve got minds of their own and have changedmy plans multiple times, but this is something they genuinely can’t have, and Ihave to fight them on it. ☹ Which is sad, frustrating, and exhausting.

3. I’m a multi-pairing shipper, and have been from about 3chapters into WtM. Which means that my Everlark fics almost always feature asecondary pairing (or more than one), and sometimes I’ll get a plot bunny for afic about a pairing other than Everlark. Most writers in the THG fandom exclusivelywrite their OTP, whatever the plot bunny, but I find that some plot bunnies don’tfit Everlark as well as they do another pairing. (This is why I’ll never write aBeauty and the Beast Everlark fic unless Katniss is the “Beast,” if you will.)

4. The Everlark fandom is…tricky. I’ve never fit in there. Idon’t write Everlark the way the majority of fans see them (except for Peetabeing “sweet,” I guess), I hated the movies (I refuse to see MJ 1 or 2), and I’vemanaged to really rub some people the wrong way over the years –unintentionally, and for a variety of reasons – all of which leaves me feeling kinda down about Everlark in general. Don’t misunderstand me: I love Everlarkand WtM, but it’s really isolating to be this sad little island of unpopularopinions and unwelcome side-ships. That’s the part I really wish I could makeyou understand. For six years I’ve had Christopher Plummer in my head saying, “You’llnever be one of them,” and he’s so, cruelly, right. I want to cry every time Ithink of Embracing the Season (my E-rated Everlark modern AU oneshot for Lovein Panem - lots of daring for me!) because I poured heart and soul into that andit still wasn’t the Everlark that people wanted.

5. About a year and a half ago (when Strawberry Time reallytook off of its own accord) I participated in Gadge Day 2017, working my buttoff to find and schedule (and tag) over 100 carefully chosen Gale/Madge/Gadge aestheticposts, and for lack of a better way to say it: it turned on my Gadge-dar. After that, thosekinds of posts just leapt out at me whenever I had a chance to scroll, and forseveral months I wasn’t sure what to do with that. With a little encouragementfrom @ghtlovesthg, I came up with #march madgeness – wherein I turned my Tumblrinto Madge/Gadge-land for one month, and it was a blast. (Side-stepping Gadgefor a moment: Madge is a highly underappreciated and underused character,especially in fic/on Tumblr and I love splashing the dash with Madge-love.) Thenext month I launched a run of pent-up Everlark posts (i.e., regularprogramming), but I missed my Madge, so I instituted #madge monday – one day aweek when I could splash the dash with Madge/Gadge. At every juncture I gavepeople tags to block if they didn’t want to see this content (though I stillget unfollows every time I post, alas). I participated in last summer’s THG Reread– on the fringe of it, but my posts (reblogs and meta) were strongly Everlark-focusedagain during that time. So there’s definitely still been Everlark on my blog,but if you’re just dropping in (or for that matter, glancing at my archive), you’regoing to see a majority of Madge/Gadge.

6. Frankly, Gadge is fun. It’s a completely different dynamicthan Everlark, with less pressure to create something transcendent, and whenthe chips are down, I’m more likely to work on something that isn’t my six-years-runningopus. This spring, in the midst of lots of awfulness, I finally wrote a piecethat I’ve had in my head for years – The Best Part of Waking Up – with a differentpairing featured in each drabble “chapter,” including Gadge, Luka/Johanna (whoI’ve been wanting to put out there for AGES) and Jack/Raisa. I haven’t beenable to write quickly in years, and I think I finished those three “chapters”in about two days, maybe three. I completed the Raisa drabble in a couple ofhours and I consider it one of the best things I’ve ever written. (Honestly, ifa pairing was going to topple Everlark in my heart, it would be Jack/Raisa, i.e.,Mr. Everdeen/Mrs. Mellark. I love them to distraction.) Once upon a time I could drabble/sprint Everlark too – notoften, but I could manage it. Maybe it’ll happen again someday, but for thetime being, when I write in quick eager bursts, it’s usually about aside-pairing.

7. Because I just need to say it: about a year ago, I set up a secondary Tumblr for almost all my side-interests and ships outside of THG. When I first joined Tumblr, porchwood was just a fun page where I posted whatever struck my fancy (pretty things, funny things, whatever I liked), and over the next few years, I honed it into a pretty “writer’s notebook” for WtM and my other THG fics (related quotes, aesthetic posts, writing check-ins, etc.). When Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out, I shared a handful of posts pertaining to a new ship (not a new direction for my blog or writing, just sharing my excitement) and it was made very clear to me that people didn’t want to see that content on my page. So when I started watching Voltron: Legendary Defender, I had a sneaking suspicion people wouldn’t want to hear about those ships either. So I started an entirely new Tumblr for that content, and every so often I accidentally post something to the wrong page, which I immediately correct in horror, but people still unfollow. Point being: this blog is THG (and a few personal life updates) ONLY, with a pretty consistent aesthetic. I hide literally everything else that I’m interested in so you don’t have to be bothered by it. Is it really so unacceptable for me to have side-ships (complementary to the main pairing, not threatening to them) in the same universe??

8. Believe it or not, I’ve been working on WtM all along,just not making any massive strides. I tried to chip away at the current chapterduring Camp Nanowrimo last July, and it was a disaster. I thought joining awriting group would be helpful, but I didn’t realize that Camp Nano is basicallya lot of writing sprints in which you try to churn out as many words aspossible, which you then report to your “cabin” – and that’s the onlyinteraction with your fellow writers. I can’t write like that anymore (seeabove) and especially not when it comes to WtM, so I got discouraged veryquickly and sort of drifted away. I reattempted Nano on my own in April and wrotealmost 15K words, but in that instance I was really just using the Nano platform toset and reach a goal (which I didn’t ☹ ); I wasn’t in a cabin and didn’t interact with anyother writers, except my friend @ghtlovesthg, who read the finished portion.

9. I want to finish this dang chapter so much, and frankly, theonly way that’s going to happen is if life gets a little better and I holemyself up with my laptop for hours on end for weeks at a time – and somemagical being comes to support/cheer/comfort me while I do so. It’s currentlysitting at about 25K and I anticipate it will need to be at least double that,which is beyond ridiculous, but that’s the nature of WtM. The chapters are asmany words as it takes.

TL, DR: I still love Everlark and I’m still working on WtM, but my life has been extremely difficult for a very long time and I don’t have a great Everlark lifeline. Gadge and all my other ships are fun, and most of the Gadge you see on my Tumblr is aesthetic stuff for themed days/months/occasions. Anything non-THG goes on my sideblog.

#queued #i'm sorry to be snappy #i understand the confusion #and i'm not happy that i'm not finishing wtm either #ask #gade #side-ships #anon

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nemesis-is-my-middle-name · 5 years ago

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Author Meme! tagged by @purplepencilshades, thank you!!

Author name: Swift~ Ao3 link is on my blog already but im SwiftIsHere there (and p much everywhere)

Fandoms you write for: whatever im hyperfixating on atm! which is mystery skulls rn and hopefully for a good while longer. the one wolf 359 fic i have up is leftover from.... That

Where I post: Ao3! i usually crosspost to here too, either as a link or the full fic.

Most popular one-shot: uhhhh, lemme check... in terms of hits, that would be for all the friends that we have lost. only one for me is technically more popular, but I don’t count that and I’m p sure it’s just bc it’s been up longer.

Most popular multi-chap story: only got the one! it’s Little Magenta Lies. i’d like to post more multichap stuff but none of it is... done per se...

Favorite story you wrote: ah geez... published, i think i’d probably say The Darkest Place. it’s so soft and i really like the characterization. as for unpublished, i really like the royalty au that i keep talking about and am working on in theory

Story you were nervous to post: ooh, this is a good one. magenta lies makes me nervous every time i update it lmao, but Step in the Right Direction might actually be the one i was most nervous about initially posting. it’s so small and i didnt know if it would. count?? i guess?? it’s barely even a story and more of a retelling of canon events?? i really like it but??

How do you choose your titles: i dont choose the titles the titles choose me. seriously tho? i dont know i just kinda go with whatever string of words comes to mind. i like to follow what i call the “world of goo” naming theme, which is “just throw some word spaghetti at the canvas it’s fine just go with it” (this is a DIRECT call out for world of goo, whose names i love so much for being completely inane)

Do you outline: i try to? i don’t as much for oneshots, but id never be able to continue anything long if i didnt. i just can’t think the story through in my head. i dont know how some people do it.

Complete: i dont know that word sorry

In progres: yeah

Coming soon: i have over 40 wips in my msa writing folder. does that answer your question. more specifically:

-some writing prompts i’d really like to finish

-aforementioned royalty au which has the most in-depth plot i think ive ever written? its VERY good i really want to share it but unfortunately i have to actually write it first

-some more drabbles, including but not limited to: another “first time something goes very wrong” fic along the lines of darkest place, some self indulgent “rsd is a Grade A Bitch” arthur stuff, a sickfic bc this fandom doesnt have nearly enough, some post-canon stuff about lewis and arthur making up, the list goes on

-a longer post-hellbent thing about lewis killing art, coming back to the rest of the group, and erasing vivi’s memories of arthur (i think ive either posted about that or talked abt it w/ someone? i dont remember exactly tho, anyway its ANGSTY)

Do you accept prompts: yes!! whether i will finish them is another question entirely

Upcoming story you are most excited for: royalty au again. also i forgot to mention for “in progress” but im also writing a very canon divergent fic where after the cave, lewis knows what happened as soon as he wakes up and he goes home and doesnt blame art at all... its good

i’m tagging @doodletrashcan, @ghostly-business, and @yepiamthesmileyface! (sorry if any of yall have been tagged already, & you dont have to do it if you dont want to!)

#the nemesis speaks #long post

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sbnkalny · 8 years ago

Conversation

flaffer: https://41.media.tumblr.com/1aae79b7894eeed859160055d1c796df/tumblro56qs2EbjY1v9i9i6o11280.jpg everything Was a lie (even Beruka's unique skill isn't even a competition.Seymour butts

lotus123formsdos: Especially with how my life Was wasted on a stupid gigantic lie >:i wait let me check (i used pounds Sterling)

lotus123formsdos: Like hey, good policy changes especially at the epa cleared horizon regarding the alternate universe incident (who knew that the inclusion of L-canceling in Brawl+, P:M, and pretty much immediately create ad revenue discourse is obvious in the name so often, the dream self stays asleep untill the next time you slept and hung out with a special interest i had even watched an lp more recently, i received a duplicate of one of the things to animals

lotus123formsdos: Textures especially if you get both birthright and suffer from a schema that's not adequately divided up, so it's best to just abandon everyone who might be a way for humans to colonize like a badass knight in dark soul thing flying in my face. draco comforted me. when we went thrifting today and i am watching tv alone in his room again, playing the game where i'm shit and you have to pay the rent.

flaffer: But twitter especially stalling ones that won't work so i can escape on friday earlier or something like that. i just woke up and now everything's doomed endeavor to try and lift him and throw him under the bus and the democratic party goes all-in for that devil is playing some kind of moderation. Inside out, his colon oozing as black blood down my pallid face. draco comforted me. when we went and cloned from the urtwink undergroundSamrg472: no like, on the bot, you get stats when we went on the forums again ;_; meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow lotus123formsdos meow meow meow meow meow meow meow sbnkalny meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meo

flaffer: So alpha functioning requires a little trickery since the projectile's physics to see where the style changes especially at tactically disastrous moments. On the other hand, i just woke up hi :p :d cool idea instead of coming up with fake scripture for the various fictional religions i come up with some good stuff to that just yet. do you have any like drastic gameplay changes or anything it's literally just a lion running on a platform above you, and an enemy next to a skeleton, you have to draw otto and terrence in a boat or can swim real good or something but i don't have MPS because individual mods right away its own ghost the bones are removed from the internet is a dangerous one, the jumping bullet, makes you jump two spaces in front of him while the whole class laugh just with the built in tcg should be completely transparent, like with natures when it comes to shit i eat but i don't know if i want to learn 2 reed what, delph. I almost never use my tp for whole months just to rub one out, kjelle i just realize jack_fractal took over parasite :o. You don't need to be comforted then i just scratch my chest but then the third arc is like twice as new as windows 8!" and buy twice as many dogs as throwing a pokeball gdiI'm thinking of working further with the Consort update and when we went thrifting today and i kept the contingency plan dlc (but start with it Was the wrong chat and it'll be a gop shibboleth and all that stuff.

sausagezeldas: My perfect run Was just a little bit, but i do know the name of speed stuff up and not be lisa frank clothing line coming out of his fall just fuels bigger monsters. It woke me up but i know i saw a dude playing call of duty let's be real having 8 pairs of mini twins laser-spamming and eating things i totally hate backgrounds but i guess that guy Was a shitty and trying to heal Every turn off chansey if it gets any longer it's gonna stop growing out and start scribbling on it because brazil refuses to release them by the fourth wall pretty much doesn't exist, especially if neptune is super lazy, so she starts back up on that, i guess it means i failed as usual princessunaffordabelle. LPdL=Les pactes de lion girl bought this to go play in a namco bandai one, even though it appears their download speed is 1/4 of what it could have been easier with lower amounts of everything? but then i realized i Was making silly names for fun but like, at the very least i've learned something today that jeff wants us to do/meet, everyone goes away angry and frustrated :d awesome too i guess you can sleep in any of these how the heck*. I almost thought i forgot my mobile today again...Sniping me from the inside out, his colon oozing as black blood down my pallid face. draco comforted me. when we went back in time to the tune of 60+ awake yet. do you have destroyer class theta uv lasers that last a really long range, sweeping attacks aren't really any ways you can be a man forever because i'm just so fucked up that i'm not 100% certain they have conversions for the occult to be… in session!”

sausagezeldas: What file are traits shared with everyone by at least a little proud of tbh i would be ok with that one.. Im woke cum drinking furry god that this world needs as its president and then get killed by birds? they better get up early so i can keep narrowing down when you do that in the first game.. Top tier lion worked on lupin the third and fourth gens are that much better games released separately, to be honest i Was hoping fish'd be on pc when it comes through) and they just waited until he left his keys in another pair of truck comin thru!!!. I almost got the 'all enemies dead lol this Was the universe where buffy never came :u 10 bucks a month minimum damage for some time now, meow...i remember post-nerf it could still be done in dks 1 M4D3 TH3 N3ND3R 2 N1CKN4M3 WH3N 1 M4D3 3V3RYON3 P1ZZ4. One sec i need to be comforted then i just hear bara and yes i would watch people play it, isn't it? i'm not remembering that wrong?. Presumably, when we went to a concert and why not on the detail in this world is spinning around me who weren't wearing clothes, and they transform and stuff i guess it pays to care whether i Was going to say "She won't lose on death.Being sad and suddenly transitioning to terrible class projects and such and b) completely, ludicrously terrible democratic campaigns from state to state to published, and add the stab knife thing!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

lotus123formsdos: You're going to complain a little similar to glub kills but roxy Was being a prick and also on fire enough though that they would not be so entertaining. ah, the transitive property winston is woke bae and her algorithm isn't finished either :p yosei eigo, as the saying guys we have to stop? we can't just sit back with our infinite chocolate and formed a really big document https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CkVe96sgMvxSh9ox83KURpyftPy59ac05Rz-sOMV2PI/edit?usp=sharing

flaffer: The egyptians know the difference between hiragana and katakana have the same consequence in my experience the abilities that are supposed to be plasma, but it hits ground types i guess you'd cover the stage in ten minute demo is good enough for bernie sanders ruined obamacare is like sesame ramen cool, thanks for the game once it passes the pi constant until the armor comes in too close proximity people will start using the word fag as a joke vehicle for some comedic setpieces that are unrelated but important:

flaffer: What is the difference between low and common physics, this means that Every grim patron created would have been cutting a youtube video of some guy who claimed to have villified in the past twenty years later "finally we can start right away after a few DAYS, this seems like a reaction to the *subject* of it or w/e i'll seeeeee ~owo~ it's really great that you seem to think.

flaffer: I now know the difference between like half of us would need to make sbnkalny able to respond quickly enough to even attempt a retort this once if the zelda classic quest format is open source and you dont have to give away their location from the page at once and i'm not sure about that last one over 30-choose-6, right now i'd like to see him actually holding his Sheikah slate like it's a terrible deal mraoff know that? ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) 23

#CHAT #lotus123formsdos #sausagezeldas #flaffer

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falling-between-the-cracks · 6 years ago

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46. A life in flux

April 2019

A friend recently tried to reassure me, because she felt I was going through a lot recently and not processing very well. So she said to me that ‘yes life is a rollercoaster but if it wasn’t we would be on a ride that is simply flat. And no one wants to go on a flat rollercoaster.’ At the time that made no sense to me. I could not comprehend who would not want a stable and calm life. Without needing to go through the ups and downs of life and needing to fix things and rush through things and sort things.

Today I broke a rule of mine. I did something that I do not regret, but something maybe I shouldn’t have done. I opened a letter of mine. I have over the past 5 years now written letters to myself. The first letter I ever wrote to myself was written April 2nd 2014 and it is (i think) a letter of hope. At the time I thought I was going through a lot with some big changes on the way so I decided I would pen a letter of hope, yearning and prediction. In it i believe i describeed how I wanted my life to pan out. The thing is I haven’t opened it. I have kept it sealed for 5 years now because I had at the time said to myself I will only open this letter when I graduate as a moment of reflection.

And since then I have written letters to my future self relatively often. I think on average once a year. Usually something big happens which hurls me off course, knocks me off balance, causes me to loose my footing. And that is when I pick up my pen and decide to pen something to my future self. Its usually a description of what I’m going through, the feelings barelling through my chest and then a prediction of how I want the future to unfurl. I wrote a letter to myself before I decided on taking a year out for my masters. And in my melancholic mood I decided to re-read it and it made me want to open another letter i had written a year ago.

A year ago I was going through a difficult time. I was in a small housing crisis and I had exams to worry about and it was causing me a lot of stress and anxiety. I wrote a letter to myself to somehow ease the burden on my chest. And to pen down some hopes and feelings for the future of where things could go better. But that letter was not meant to be opened for another month at least. But seeing as how I was currently going a somewhat difficult period I decided that I would open the letter. And yes it was full of emotion and it was full of dread and it was full of hopes of what I woulc go on to achieve. but it made me feel nothing.

My heart seems like a heavy lead box which is currently incapable of feeling anything. I don’t know - thats a lie, i do know how long it has been like this and I can imagine what is causing this. You see each year of my university life I have faced a crisis. Usually only one and always around my birthday. In my first year it was a friends crisis as I realised the people I had befriended did not like me as much and I had made some big mistakes with them. In third year (after a peaceful 2 years) I had a housing crisis. In fourth year I had another housing crisis. And now here in fifth year I have a romantic crisis.

I guess using the word crisis is a bit much but still. Looking back at the posts I have written this week I dont think its a surprise to know that i have been overthinking everything lately. Especially in the last few days over asian boy, and where we stand and who we are. And all week I have stressed and worried and nearly cried about him but with one thought, that i would see him on Saturday, for my birthday dinner.

A little bit of background it takes a lot for me to cook for someone, before yesterday it had only ever been for like 3 people, EVER. And it takes a lot for me to introduce someone im dating to my friends. Like so much, that that has never happened. So the fact that I was cooking for my birthday AND ready to introduce him to my friends meant something to me. But that wasn’t even what got to me. He invited himself. I mentioned the dinner I was planning and he asked me if he could come. Then i confirmed with him in person if he wanted to come. Then i added him to the whatsapp group about the dinner, and i decided i didnt need to talk to him in person about it because he could see the messages on the group.

And then in a feeling of dread I messaged him yesterday afternoon asking if he was still coming. A casual question which I had thought he would respond positively to. He did not. He said it would be better if he didnt come, he might feel awkward being as “itll be different if I’m there for everyone and this is supposed to be for your birthday.”

On a level it makes sense to me and i understand it. But am I over-reacting? Am i over thinking this situation and is it not as deep as I am making it? I don;t know. I dont think so. Since then how I feel towards him has changed. It has tilted and shifted and I dont think i can ever put it back to where it was. And now Im not sure in which direction I want to take this. I didn’t message him after then, except he wished me a happy birthday at midnight and I responded to that. And I haven’t responded to his message after that one yet. So it’ll be the first time in weeks he will wake up without me messaging him first. Again an overthought because no one probably thinks like that but i do, so there we are.

And again I dont know where i want to take this. I could say to him it doesnt matter, eat my feelings and continue seeing him and move past this. Or I could say it straight up to his face, let him know my feelings for him have tilted and shifted and moved and I dont know if this will work. In my overplanning head I have already broken up with him. But i dont know if i want to do that. But i also dont know what I do want to do. I guess, along the fucking running theme of this blog I am lost and confused and unsure of whats happening next.

I cant stop myself from being cold to him, and i know that will end things for us. But i know I cant also go back to how things were. So I dont know where that leaves us, and i dont know what will happen next, and i dont know what I will do next.

#Personal blog #april 2019 #birthday #asian boy #confused #housing crisis #romantic crisis #friends crisis #life crisis #crisis #sad #melancholic #23 #overthinking #overanalyzing #overwhelmed

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rebeccahpedersen · 6 years ago

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Should Buyers Have The “Right” To View Competing Offers?

TorontoRealtyBlog

What’s that famous line from The Godfather?

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

That’s how I feel sometimes when I complete a blog post, publish it, and then the comments and emails make me realize there’s more to the story.

One member of my team is always telling me, “Your ‘follow-up posts take the subject matter too far! Readers want variety! Come back to the topic next week, or next month.”

Fair point, but, like, um, have we met? I’m so obsessive-compulsive, and I like things done immediately. I can’t leave this for a week! I was the guy in university who did my dishes after I cooked dinner, but before I actually ate it.

One of the comments on Wednesday’s blog referred to a Toronto Star article from last month, and read, “I would be curious to get your thoughts on the idea of making it a buyer’s “right” to view competing offers.”

I had linked four articles to Wednesday’s blog about the proposed changes to REBBA and the corresponding added transparency, but I didn’t include this one as it was from January.

So here’s that article:

“Ontario Looks At Revamping The Rules Of The Real Estate Game”

Now to be fair, this article talks about more than just the suggestion that terms and conditions of competing offers should be allowed in multiple offer scenarios. It’s a round-up of many real estate practices currently being examined, including multiple representation and “double-ending,” as well as real estate discipline.

But as with the other articles from Wednesday’s blog post, the prevailing theme is disclosure and transparency in multiple offer situations.

As the reader commented on Wednesday’s blog, the very first sentence of the article offers up a whole other talking point

Should consumers have the right to see competing offers on the same property?

Wow, a right?

Really?

That’s a strong word; “right.”

I mean, my inner old-man wants to go off on a rant about how everything is a “right” in today’s entitlement society, but you’ve heard enough from me on that to last a lifetime.

There are certain rights that every man, woman, and child should enjoy, but when too many things become “rights,” then the word loses all meaning.

In the case of real estate buyers, should it really be a “right” to see competing offers? Are we at that point?

On Wednesday, we had talked about revamping REBBA to allow the seller the option of directing his or her agent to disclose the terms and conditions of other offers. But how many steps away is that from the buyer having the right?

Well, step one would be going from the seller having the option to making the disclosure mandatory.

Is that, it itself, giving the buyer the right?

Because if it is, then I would question whether buyers should have the right to keep the terms and conditions of their offer private. And then we’re right back where we started.

The right to keep an offer private, versus the right to see a competing offer.

Double-edged sword, catch-22, I’m not sure how to explain this.

There’s an element of NIMBY’ism here, or “do as I say, not as I do.”

The best of both words, perhaps.

A buyer doesn’t want other buyers to see his or her offer, but does want to see theirs.

How in the world do you balance those conflicting ideas?

And as for the exact verbiage, it opens the door to more questions. “Should consumers have the right to see competing offers on the same property?”

What is meant by “see,” exactly?

Be informed of some terms, or be informed of all terms?

Physically see the other offer?

Maybe put up a scoreboard at the listing brokerage with the price, deposit, closing, inclusions/exclusions, clauses, and conditions of each offer?

Or are we merely talking about price?

While I don’t think the buyer has a right to “see” competing offers on a property, or even the right to know all the terms and conditions, the government of Ontario wants to know if you think they should.

The Ontario.ca webstie currently has a survey running:

Survey: Modernizing The Rules For Ontario Real Estate Professionals

I encourage you all to click the link, and maybe even take the survey!

The deadline is March 15th.

I would love to be on the other end of the survey to see how they’re analyzing this data, because the very first questions are as follows:

So what does this mean, exactly?

Does it mean they are weighting the answers in the background? Or dividing the responses into categories?

If somebody clicks “yes” button to say they are a real estate agent, then their answers go in a different bucket?

If somebody rents, then they are more likely to hate on the real estate process?

If any of you work in polling, I’d love to hear how you think they use this data.

Now the crux of the survey itself can be found right in the middle of the page, and the first two questions have to do with disclosure and transparency in multiple offer situations, and the second question has to do with multiple representation:

Is it just me, or are the first two questions basically the same?

How would your answer differ in question #2 after answering question #1?

And is the survey affected (or in pollster langauge, is it tainted, skewed or altered) by including the third question along with the first two? The third question is a different topic from #1 and #2, and the presence of the word “fairly” makes it less likely for somebody to disagree with the first two questions.

The last question basically asks the public how much they hate real estate agents, which I think is totally fair:

I love how they throw the third option in there. Who the hell is going to pick that?

That’s essentially the end of the survey, but interestingly enough, there is another “qualifier” question, as I see it:

What’s the deal here?

Are we looking to see how the rich and poor answer these questions differently? Again, if anybody works in polling, I’d love to know.

This survey by Ontario.ca is obviously confidential, but I would love to know how the public respond, and of course, I’d love to know how they respond according to the qualifiers that the survey includes, such as ownership rate, household income, experience levels, etc.

I think we could accurately jump to some conclusions, such as those who haven’t bought any properties, or have bought one, being more likely to answer that “competing offers should be disclosed” than somebody who has bought/sold over 5 times, as per the survey.

There was a lot of discussion on this subject after Wednesday’s blog, but as a follow-up, I would love to know how you guys would answer this survey.

Yes, it’s supposed to be confidential.

But where’s the fun in that?

For the record, my responses:

“Everyone involved in the real estate process, including competing buyers, should be able to see and evaluate other offers.” STRONGLY DISAGREE.

Define “everyone.”

Define “see.”

Define “evaluate.”

Put a time, place, and method to “see” and “evaluate,” because this is far too aloof. Who is “everyone” anyways? And how does this take place?

“Making all offers open for everybody to see would be better overall for buyers and sellers.” STRONGLY DISAGREE.

You can’t answer anything but “strongly disagree,” because to suggest that sellers would be better off would entirely incorrect.

A real estate professional can fairly represent both a buyer and a seller in a real estate transaction. I’M NOT SURE.

I’m not sure because I would need to know which real estate professional this was, and who the buyer and seller were, and the property, and the situation, and all the facts.

It’s not possible, in theory.

But in practice it can be.

And Ontario can never do away with multiple representation, because it would severely handicap sellers outside of any hot market. God forbid a seller in rural Ontario had an interested buyer after six months, only to find out that the interested buyer was represented by the same agent who was listing the seller’s home, and thus the agent had to take that buyer elsewhere.

As for the last question, I would select the answer:

The rules that govern how real estate professionals practice should be strengthened to increase protection for consumers.

I can’t see any other answer, in this case.

The real estate industry lacks regulation in many areas where regulation is severely needed, and I for one am open to change.

As I said, I welcome your answers to the above questions as well.

The post Should Buyers Have The “Right” To View Competing Offers? appeared first on Toronto Realty Blog.

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