"Non-Traditional" vs. "Regular" Sales

"We Have Some With Ham, Too"

One of my favorite Mad Magazine cartoons shows a food stand advertising every kind of burger known to man: 'Buffalo burgers,' 'Chicken burgers,' Turkey burgers,' 'Veggie burgers,' and on and on.

The caption: 'we have some with ham, too, but we don't know what to call them.'

In that vein, the real estate industry is struggling to come up with a name for plain, old, non-lender-mediated sales.

As you may or may not know, "lender-mediated sales" -- namely, foreclosures and short sales -- have devoured the market in many locales the last six months or so.

For now, the preferred label for everything else: 'traditional sales.'

What were the runners-up?

"Regular" sales? "Normal" sales?

P.S.: my clients (and neighbors) know that I have a penchant for quoting Mad Magazine. In fact, another cartoon was the inspiration for my license plate.

It shows an overbearing, 50-ish guy with too much chest hair and bling (not me, I promise) trying to entice women back to his yacht with the cheesy pickup line, "I named it after you."

Sure enough, the last frame cuts away to a yacht with the license plate, "After You."

My car's license plate reads, "MY RLTR" -- as in, "there goes . . . my Realtor."