GRE Argument Topic 4

Sample 1:

The author of this argument has experience using two local real estate agencies to sell his two homes in a period of ten years. On the surface, his recommendation to his friend must carry some weight. However, he has overlooked some important information while making his assumptions about the effectiveness of Adams Realty being superior to that of Fitch Realty. To accept the author's argument, the reader needs more substantial reasons to accept the assumptions.

The author would have us believe that a bigger real estate agency is better than a smaller one as he reports the number of agents working at each agency and that Fitch Realty has many part-time agents. Based on that information, the reader assumes that all or most of Adams Realty agents work full time. Additionally, there is the assumption that full-time employees are more productive or effective as realtors than part-time employees. Should we find that is not the case, the assumption would prove false.

The author would also have his friend believe that Adams Realty secures higher prices than Fitch Realty for the homes they sell based on the average price each company reveals. There are several weaknesses inherent in this assumption. An average is derived from totaling the amount that each house sold for and dividing the total by the number of units sold. It could very well be that Fitch Realty sold several houses at a very high price and several houses for very low prices, whereas Adams Realty could have sold most of its inventory at very similar prices. Houses have appraised values; there is no evidence that one or the other of the real estate companies is better than the other at selling houses at or close to their appraised values. The author also fails to reveal whether the clients of each company were happy with the service and/or prices they received for their homes.

An implied assumption in this letter is that the real estate market has not changed in the intervening ten years since the author sold his first home. The reader must also assume that the two real estate agencies have not undergone any changes. They must have the same agents and marketing strategies that they employed ten years ago. Considering what has happened to the housing market in the last few years, as well as economic trends such as inflation and social trends such as gentrification, it is unlikely that either or both agencies has not altered its approach to the sale of houses.

Virtually all business is predicated on the law of supply and demand. Ten years ago, the writer's house may not have been in high demand. There may have been glut of houses just like his on the market and very little demand for that type of house. In the current market, the type of house that he sold may be very popular with plenty of potential customers seeking the features that his house had. There is no guarantee that the writer's friend will have the same experience either with Adams Realty or getting a fast sale and a high price for his home.

Sample 2:

In this argument, the author recommends us to use Adams, one of the two leading real estate firms in his town. As per him, Adams is much better than Fitch Realty, the other leading real estate firm in the town. He has supported his argument by comparing some aspects of the two firms to convince us like Adams Realty has more real estate agents, more revenue, and it is more efficient in selling houses than Fitch on the basis of his own experience ten years ago. However, this argument seems specious on several grounds.

In the first place, the author’s assumption that having more agents means good service is unconvincing. According to him, Adams’ service is better than Fitch’s because it has 40 real estate agents while Fitch has only 25. However, he has nowhere mentioned the qualifications of agents in the two firms. It might be that the agents in Fitch are more qualified, trained, and experienced. Hence, it does not require more agents and the agents do not need to work full time. Anyways, the quality of the service cannot be related to only a factor of the number of employees. There are many other things that should be taken into consideration, such as social reputation of the company, the feedbacks of customers and the company’s work culture to avoid making the assertion too unwarranted.

The second point that the author has raised is that Adams’ revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch. This data is not very clear. The author has not mentioned the service charges of the two companies. There is a possibility of Adam’s charges being much more than those of Fitch’s. It might be the adequate reason for the gap in revenue of both the firms. There is also another possibility that Adams sells only high priced houses or some particular type of houses, which brings more income. Hence, the argument cannot be concluded without all this information.

Lastly, the author cites that Fitch sells homes slower than Adams does. He has given a ten years old example of his own experience. According to the arguer’s narrative, he entrusted his home to Fitch ten years ago and it took four months to sell his house. While when he registered his another house with Adams, it sold his house in one month. However, the author has not mentioned the location, condition, area, material used and size of the two houses. There is a high possibility that the new house was easier to sell because of its good location or good condition. Moreover, during a long span of ten years, the situation varies significantly in many aspects, for instance, the changes in the real estate domain, the changes of the society that lead to the differences in the demand of houses and the inflation. Under this circumstance, Adams’ success, however, is merely ordinary. The author has concluded the argument too hastily without considering all these possibilities.

Hence, the argument seems very unconvincing. The evidence produced by the author to assess the two real estate firms like only the number of agents and the revenue is not sufficient. The author should have considered many other factors such as the efficiency of employees, their familiarities to the real estate market etc.