In Defense of Real Estate

After having read aloud at our weekly office meeting the Oct. 5 article that appeared in the Valley Business section of The Times entitled “Poorly Planned Open Houses Can Leave Bad Impression,” we unanimously felt a need to respond, especially to those remarks made by Mr. Berns, an employee of Jon Douglas.

We are appalled at the demeaning attitude expressed by Berns toward the people in his own industry as well as his own office. For Berns, whose own real estate firm was a failure, to anoint himself as spokesman for thousands of hard-working agents is ludicrous.

Most of us in the real estate industry are hard-working professionals. We are in a business that requires us to be psychologists, astute negotiators, financial wizards, baby-sitters and whatever else it takes to successfully complete a transaction.

If Berns is truly under the illusion that a person of his “caliber” is a rare find at an open house, we would be happy to accompany him on any weekend to any open house to verify the “caliber” of the people working hard to market property for their sellers. Additionally, we are surprised that a person of Mr. Douglas’ standing in the real estate community would allow one of his employees to expound such drivel.

Nine of 10 real estate professionals will attest to the fact that this is the worst real estate market we’ve experienced in many years; so for someone such as Berns to publicly degrade an industry already devastated by recession is unconscionable.

KETTY CARPENTER

SUSAN DREYFUSS

MARY PENCE

CAROLYN COWLES

MARIAN KETRICK

RAY SZELANGOWSKI

The board of directors of Stonegate Realtors Inc., Studio City