The following appeared in a letter from a homeowner to a friend.

"Of the two leading real estate firms in our town � Adams Realty and Fitch Realty �
Adams Realty is clearly superior. Adams has 40 real estate agents; in contrast,
Fitch has 25, many of whom work only part-time. Moreover, Adams' revenue last year
was twice as high as that of Fitch and included home sales that averaged $168,000,
compared to Fitch's $144,000. Homes listed with Adams sell faster as well: ten
years ago I listed my home with Fitch, and it took more than four months to sell;
last year, when I sold another home, I listed it with Adams, and it took only one
month. Thus, if you want to sell your home quickly and at a good price, you should
use Adams Realty."

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the
argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what
the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

In the letter to his friend, the homeowner asserts that if one has to sell their
home quickly and at a good price, among the two real estate firms in their town,
Adams Realty is clearly superior. He comes to this conclusion based on the number
of real estate agents, annual revenue of both the real estate firms and the time it
requires for the house to be sold after being listed. But, the argument makes
sweeping conclusions even when there is a lack of evidence to come to any solid
conclusions.

First of all, the homeowner makes the assumption that having more real estate agent
can lead to one real estate firm being better than the another. It is not necessary
that this theory is true. It is more important to look at the efficiency of these
agents and not at the number of agents. If Fitch Realty's agents, even after being
lesser in number, are more efficient, then the homeowner's assertion is weakened.

Next, the homeowner also makes the assumptions that averaging more in annual home
sales directly implies that Adams realty will be able to sell each home on their
listing at a good price which is not necessarily true. The average sales depend
directly on total number of houses sold. It is possible that Fitch Realty sold more
number of houses over the past annual year which resulted in the average going down
a bit but it still has number of houses sold in the higher amount category as
compared to Adams Realty. It is also possible that Adams Realty was able to secure
some deals with very high home sales and since averages are very susceptible to
outlier amounts, Adams Realty has higher average sales over the past annual year as
compared to Fitch Realty. If any of the above scenarios are true, then the
assertion made by the homeowner holds no water.

Also, the homeowner makes another assumption. He assumes that the real estate
market from ten years ago can be compared with the real estate market of last year.
It is possible that Fitch Realty has improved a lot in the past 10 years and now
with their upgraded systems, they actually make sales faster than Adams Realty. The
demand in the market can change a lot over 10 years and hence it may be possible
that drawing comparison between these two scenarios which are 9 years apart may
yield false results. If any of these examples hold merit, it challenges the
homeowner's assertion that Adams Realty is able to sell the listed homes quicker
than Fitch Realty.

In conclusion, the argument, as it stands, is flawed. It will be better if the

homeowner can provide more details and statistics, in the form of a much more
detailed research, about the assumptions that he makes. That will be very helpful
to evaluate the assumptions that he makes, which as of now stand unwarranted.