When I moved into my house, I didn't assume my garden was 'organic'. Who knows what the last owners got up to with poisons and additives. But then again, the Real Estate agent never pretended that it was organic. When I finally found the key to the garden shed a couple of months later, a couple of squirt bottles of round-up and some snail bait confirmed that the previous owners were trigger happy. Case closed.
However, in some Real Estate sneakiness, Raine and Horne are currently selling a house in Bathurst Street with the description 'A Very Peaceful Organic Garden' (their capitalisations, strangely). Now, I know the tenants currently renting that house, where they nurture an admirable vegie patch. While they don't use poison in the garden to my knowledge, the real estate agent never asked them if they do, which means that there's no way that the Raine and Horne should be advertising the garden as 'organic' (although they'd probably something along the lines of 'it's organic in that most items are carbon-based').
Luckily, most people have a healthy scepticism of real estate agents, and this probably just reinforces the profession's bad image. Still, I think it's ridiculous that they advertise happy organicness, and then... wait for it... tell them to kill all the oxalis in the front yard NOW (in your dreams, estate agent). Personally, if I were my friends, I'd take poison to the oxalis.
Next house inspection, I'd probably also leave out those buckets underneath the 'great use of [leaking roof and] skylights' and let potential buyers see for themselves just how '[dodgily] well restored & extended with quality [makeshift] fittings and [common] exceptional [mould] taste', the house actually is.
Buyer beware.
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