I was in Atlanta over the weekend and met up with a friend I haven’t seen in a long time. At one point our conversation touched on the housing market and this is what I learned of what is happening in Atlanta:

Entire blocks of homes are sitting vacant and being traded between online realtors to make them look more profitable.

My friend watched one street with seven houses for sale by Zillow. A few weeks went by and all the for sale signs switched to Redfin. A few weeks after that, they all switched to another online realtor who’s name he couldn’t recall. This peaked his curiosity so he decided to walk the block and knock on each door. All the houses were vacant.

Now, I’m just a dumb ape who knows nothing of realtors and how they conduct business, but my friend is fairly certain they’re trading houses(like the hedgies are trading false shares) to make it appear they’re selling more volume and making more money.

Does/has anyone know/seen/heard about of any of this? I’ve done a little DD and I’m not seeing this reported anywhere.

Lastly, if this is the case, isn’t it our duty to expose this corruption in the housing market or at least attack the corrupt? Maybe after the AMC/GME shenanigans, we shift focus to shorting online realtors? My shower thought for the day.