Comparison of two leading real estate firms in the town
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.
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The argument regarding the best real estate firm is relying on three questionable assumptions that undermine its validity. First, the argument suggests that Adams Realty has the biggest profit. Second, it implies that Fitch Realty has slower marketing than Adams. Finally, it presupposes that Adams Realty is considerable as superior firms based on the amount and working time of its employees.
The argument, first of all, suggests without proof that Adams Realty has the biggest profit based on its revenue. The data is not very clear because the homeowner has not mentioned the manufacturing costs of the two companies. There is a possibilty that Adams charges being much more than those on Fitch's. For example, Adams has more agents so it could cost more in employer's salary. Therefore, the argument cannot be concluded without all this information.
Second, the argument assumes without proof, that Fitch Realty spends more time in selling their homes rather than Adams'. But that is biased fact because homeowner compares between Fitch and Adams not in a same period. Ten years in the past could has a big difference today. For example, ten years ago, less people looking for new home through real estate firm. In addition, the homeowner does not clearly mentioned about the detail of the sold homes, such as its location, area, size, etc of two homes.
Finally, the argument implies that the bigger amount and working time of Adams' employees make it a superior firm. However, a successful company is determined by many factors, not only because of its huge employees. When the leaders understand the way to drive their companies in an effective and efficient way, there is no need of copious workers. Moreover, there is no clear information about the qualities and competencies between those two company's agents.
So, the difficulty with the argument, as presented above, is that it makes several unwarranted assumptions. For that reason, the conclusion does not follow logically from the permises.
