August 17, 2022 | ± 4 minutes
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The WC is a random mix of useful, interesting & notable stuff that gets pumped into your inbox every Wednesday.
Table of Contents
Some wild facts about real estate agents
Here are a few things I recently learned about the real estate agent game:
- Since 2020, over 250k new real estate agents have entered the industry in the US. That’s 3x the normal rate.
- 93% of all home sales are closed by the top 7% of agents.
- Only 68% of agents have a website.
- During a massive real estate bull run, the average agent only sold one house per month in 2021.
But the most striking thing (for me anyway) is the number of real estate agents per listing. Historic averages are around 2.5 listings per agent. Today it’s 0.7 listings.
The friendly side of “pig butchering”
There’s a scam in China called Sha Zhu Pan (杀猪盘), or “pig butchering” – because the fraudster strings along the victim for weeks or months before moving in for the kill.
It’s a riff on an old scam where someone gets an SMS from someone they don’t know. Some percent of victims who are lonely or a bit thick respond, and a friendship (or romance) develops over time.
Eventually (and inevitably), the victim is tricked into sending money somewhere they shouldn’t, and they’re left financially and emotionally battered.
In the US, these types of scams have historically been blunt and unrefined – usually something about a missing parcel or investing tips. But now, the butcher is coming to America, leading with delightful intros like this:
You can see how this sort of message would draw you in (or at least get a response). Which then leads to this —
So, if you get an SMS from someone you don’t know, and it sounds delightfully friendly and confusing, keep your pocketbook in your pocket.
When $42m/year just won’t do
There’s always someone richer than you. Someone prettier. Someone smarter. Someone who makes better pancakes.
This is a lesson all parents try to instill in their kids growing up. Constantly reaching for more is the path to misery.
I guess Kewsong Lee’s mum and dad must have missed that day, and it’s cost him hundreds of millions of dollars.
Last week, Lee, who was on $42m a year as Private Equity firm Carlyle Capital’s boss, reached just a bit further than his grasp would allow. He proposed a $300m pay packet (over five years) to bring his compensation in line with “peers at firms such as KKR and Apollo Global.”
To be fair, $300m barely gets you on the Top 10 list for yachts these days, so he may have a case.
Inflation and that.
China’s got a space plane
Probably. Maybe.
A commercial satellite flew over China and snapped a photo of a blurry dot on a runway next to a bunch of other blurry dots on the same runway.
What’s it doing up there? No one really knows, but there’s lots of speculation.
China’s new space plane is back in orbit—and no one’s sure what it’s doing.https://t.co/5K88WgExT9
— Ars Technica (@arstechnica) August 13, 2022
Don’t worry, though. Xinhua has cleared it all up.
“The test spacecraft will be in orbit for a period of time before returning to the scheduled landing site in China, during which reusable and in-orbit service technology verification will be carried out as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space.”
Space plane!
Speaking of futuristic planes…
Longtime readers of the WC will remember a piece on flying cars from a couple of months back. I was, uh, pretty skeptical, but it turns out there may actually be a business here…
United Airlines is buying 100 eVTOL (electronic vehicle, takeoff and landing) space planes air taxis. They paid $10m.
These air taxis can shuttle around four passengers at a time at around 150mph and are completely battery-powered.
So far, United has committed to $1B worth of these things with an option for $500m more.
You can watch one go up and down a bit to a slamming dad rock soundtrack
What caught your eye this week?
Cheers,
Wyatt
