The question states--


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.


My response --


The author states that Adams Realty is a far superior real state firm than Fitch Realty and it will be beneficial for his friend to use Adams Realty in order to sell home faster and at a good price. However, the conclusion is based on the assumptions that have some logical fallaces. Though the author presents a personal evidence to strengthen his argument, this evidence does not state whether Adams Realty benefited him with more profit than Fitch Realty or not.


The author assumes that larger workforce make one company superior than the other. But one can argue that with a small workforce a company can still be competitive in the market and earn more profit because a company doesn't need a lot of men when it's operating in a small town. It is also unstated in the argument whether the town, in where the two firms are operating, is a big one or a small one. Thus, without further evidence this assumption is clearly not compelling enough.


The author also states that Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch. Yet, higher revenue doesn't guarantee higher profit. It could be possible that Adams has invested more money in the process while Fitch earned a significant amount of profit with a small investment. In addition to the "more revenue" evidence, the author indicates that the average home sales value is higher in Adams'. But the number of home that has been sold is not included in the evidence. Therefore it is still a possibility that Fitch sold more home than Adams, so the overall earning is higher for Fitch.


In his approach to persuade his friend to choose Adam over Fitch, the author brings a personal evidence that has compared two incidents that are set apart by ten years. This is a serious flaw in the argument. One can not deny that the economical condition of the town people could have been improved and that's why in present day, time duration between home listing and home sale is shorter than before. Furthermore, the author didn't indicate what's the present condition of Fitch regarding home sale waiting time.


The argument could have been much clearer if it explicitly stated the present day comparison of profit in respect of time and money between the two real state companies.