Time is of the essence - in almost all aspects of our lives

While reviewing a offer to purchase, the "time is of the essence" clause struck me for some reason and how almost everything these days seems to be that way.
Everyone is always rushing everywhere. People are in too much of a hurry to even hold doors open for one another anymore. I even see the odd nutbar driving a few yards further up the highway's shoulder just to get a few car-lengths further, sooner in his quest to get the cottage quickly. Are you kidding me?

But in some regards, I have to say that my time is more valuable (to me) than certain savings.

When I was a kid, Mom and Dad lived in a different kind of world, with different values. Time was what they had in spades. Dad was a Chartered Accountant and he knew how to manage their money very, very well and when he passed away, Mom was financially taken care of.

I vividly recall their regular Thursday night grocery shopping run which started after dinner and usually brought them back home after 9pm, when most grocery stores closed. And they had a car-load of groceries!

In their world, (when $5 would buy a half tank of gas *and* get you change back!), they thought nothing of driving to Loblaws to get a certain selection off their list, then go to Miracle Food Mart because their meat selection was better, then to a Knob Hill Farms because grapes and eggs were on special and then to......

Now really, how much cheaper could grapes possibly be in this day, in order to make me drive to a different grocery store *and* line up to check out again just to buy cheaper grapes (and eggs).
I mean, if grapes were 15 cents/lb cheaper, am I rushing to another store just to save 30 cents (assuming I splurged on TWO pounds!)?  Even if eggs were also reduced by 15 cents/dozen, come on - how many dozen eggs could I buy to justify this trip?
I'd have to buy a HELLUVA lot of grapes and eggs to justify that trip - I'm talking about skid-loads!
Needless to say, I'm unable to consume enough grapes and eggs to make that trip cost-effective.

With today's cost of gas, and higher traffic, I'm burning up the savings just idling in traffic in the round trip!

And that doesn't even factor in what MY time is worth.
There are lots of theories and methods on determining what your time is worth on an hourly basis.
For the sake of this historical example, I'll go cheap and say Dad's time was worth $10/hour.
So if it takes him an hour and a half to make that round trip shopping for grapes and eggs, his time-cost alone is $15!

I was speaking to Mom yesterday (she's 85 now) and she had been browsing the flyers and was urging me to get to Sobey's for a smoked ham and then to Freshco for potatoes, watermelon, bacon and mayo...
because they were a "good deal".

So are cheaper grapes or eggs (or ham) alone going to make me choose a particular grocery store  over another in today's world?
If someone said to me - "would you travel to this grocery store over this other one, just to save a dollar in combined savings, at the expense of your time - and hassle of a another parking lot, checkout etc and an added 45 minutes? Would I do it?
Nope.
Time is of the essence.

A house for $1? Don't bet on it.

There are even a couple of houses on the market listed for $1 (one dollar!) with a clear intent of creating a bidding war. It’s not a new tactic. Some feel that by removing a particular list price, that you’re telling the market they’re free to set their own price for the house.

Nice in theory.

But Realtors have access to the selling prices of homes on that street and are going to know what’s fair value and what’s not going to fly. And they’ll advise their clients accordingly. 

(NOTE: A “client” is one who signed a Buyer Representation Agreement with the agent. That agreement requires the agent to work in the *buyer’s* best interests and provide them with sound advice and historical sales etc. If you don’t sign a Buyer’s Rep agreement, the agent is not obligated to provide that info on your behalf!)

The Sellers and their agent are going to find themselves sifting through a lot of offers that aren’t even in the ballpark for what they’re prepared to sell it for. 

So why bother with all of that “noise”? 

Are they looking to find that one person willing to hugely over pay? They could have achieved the same thing by listing it for $100,000 less than expected and then eliminate the myriad of lowball offers at the same time. All that this $1 list price is going to achieve is kill a lot of trees through wasted paperwork by a lot of agents with buyers believing they’re going to score some ridiculously sweet deal.

www.Alexa.com reports that www.Realtor.ca is the 49th most visited site in Canada. By comparison, the Star's website is #50.

Lots and lots of people are going to notice that house at that price.

And since the sellers are not obligated to accept just *any* price for the house, they're likely going to get market rate for the place or even slightly above.

But if I'm selling your house, that $1 listing tactic is not something I would do.

Why would you and I want to sift through dozens of ridiculous offers just to weed through them to find the few that are even in the ballpark?

That said, it might be something to consider if the property was a really unique, one-of-a-kind property and difficult to find comparisons with it. But for the average property in the GTA, nope.

To some it may seem "crafty". But they just haven't really thought it through.