Stereotype of Real Estate Sellers Doesn’t Hit Home

The satirical piece by John M. Glionna [“Stalking the Motivated Seller,� Dec. 18] was hardly funny, accurate or self-flattering. It is true, the residential real estate market locally has been battered since late 1989 and prices have dropped steadily in the 1990s. This has caused sellers to fret, Realtors to go broke or go deep into debt, and buyers to pick up bargains. If “Vulture� was a serious home buyer, he would have done the following: 1.: Establish rapport with one agent and have that agent find him the right home for his needs, and 2.: not berate, belittle, or insult those involved in selling homes--including owners and realty agents.

I personally regard the characterization of Realtors as vultures driving expensive foreign cars, weighed down with gold jewelry and fast-talking sales pitches as as bad as any group-stereotyping gets. There are over 100 agents working at my office, and none fits that ugly characterization. And of the hundreds of others I know, very, very few come close to that caricature painted by Glionna.

My car is a 1986 Ford Escort, I have no gold jewelry and I do not use high-pressure tactics. And most of my colleagues are far more likely to match this profile than the one painted by Glionna.

SOL TAYLOR

Sherman Oaks