The source of truth and the new misinformation network
- July 27, 2022
A considerable challenge we face as agents is that the media has such an influence on people’s lives, what with our handheld devices pinging new information at us by the minute. It’s a media requirement to be first with the news – but not always to be accurate. Are sources always thoroughly checked? Are they speaking to the right and best people to get their information and is the message just twisted a touch to favour the source or the desired direction of their narrative?
Take auction results as an example. Domain, REA, Dr Andrew Wilson and SQM Research all report variations of the weekend results. Who is right, how do they calculate their figures and why does it make a difference? For a time we had several prominent sources reporting the auction clearance rate north of 60% while SQM Research was saying 40%. These results paint two dramatically different market dynamics – 60% is a stable market, evenly positioned between buyers and sellers, while 40% is a market in decline that firmly favours buyers. Same data, completely different outcomes.
In our experience you have the dramatic headline, or clickbait as it’s often called, then the body copy which magnifies the dramatic spin, requiring you to read through the padded out wording to pick up the important content. Then there are the media sources which have their own drum to beat rather than being impartial, so you need to find the journalists who will pivot and report only the facts.
When we look at how property is regularly reported, it’s so hard to make sense of the direction and determine who has the most reliable data and sources of information. We tend to stick with several experts including Coolabah Capital Investment’s Christopher Joye for analysis and Louis Christopher of SQM Research for data. CoreLogic also has worthwhile information and ANZ and NAB’s consumer and business confidence surveys are useful, as are RPData’s suburb reports and Pricefinder’s live price updates. Marry this data with an insider’s view of what’s happening at the coalface and you’ll get as close to market truth as possible.
Feel free to have a chat with us if you’d like some more insight into decoding the mountains of property information out there.
