Well we found yet more holes in Catherine Reagor's totally irresponsible June 4th AZ Republic Article "High-end condos' low opening bids signal glut.

Our local paper's real estate "journalist" failed to do even basic research before making her exagerated claims. In her article she stated that "four condos in the Optima Biltmore Tower on Phoenix's posh corner of 24th Street and Camelback Road are going on the block [auction] this month. The high-rise homes cost [emphasis added] $949,000 last year. The opening bid for one of the condos now is $475,000." She also stated in the article that "the minimum bids are half of what the homes originally cost."

Man, more horrible real estate news. Is it true that some poor soul is facing financial disaster, possibly foreclosure, and has resorted to auctioning his home for less than half the price he paid for it'!! Nope; Reagor got it all wrong.

I'm no journalist, in fact I've never even taken a journalism class, but I do have some common sense. Without any fancy schmancy "press ID" we got the facts from Sheldon Good and Associates, the auction company referenced in Reagor's article.

A simple telephone call revealed that contrary to Reagor's claim, the condo referenced in her article did NOT originally cost $949,000. Instead, it was purchased by an investor for approximately $500,000. The investor then put it back on the market for $960,000.

When after several months he could not find a buyer to pay his ridiculously inflated price he decided to try another angle and hired Sheldon Good & Associates to auction it. He set the minimum bid at $475,000 but also instructed Sheldon Good to take the home off the market if the auction does not garner a certain predetermined price. Bright guy; too bad the journalist did not bother doing even basic investigation of her facts.

One of the greatest things about America is our free press. Unfortunately, although we citizens are told not to believe everything we read we cant help but put trust in our traditional journalist media. In the case of Catherine Reagor and her above referenced article any trust would be totally misplaced.