GRE : Analyze An Argument - 5

"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.

Response :

The author of the letter claims that Adams Realty is better than Fitch Realty in terms of time taken to sell the home and selling price. He presented various facts and statistics about both the realties to support his claim. But there is lack of concrete and precise evidence to reach the ultimate conclusion. Due to various assumptions 
made by the homeowner, the argument seems to be specious. 
First, the number of employees is not a good marker for rating a realty. There is no fact mentioned about qualification and experience of the employees in the letter. It's possible that the employees at Fitch Realty are more qualified and experienced than Adams Realty. Thus Fitch Realty needs fewer employees; also they can manage their work while working part time.  
Letter doesn't give a clear picture about the number of employees who work part time in Fitch Realty. Generally, the working population manages to afford time for other activities in the evening. The part time employees of Fitch may be catering these customers who are free in the evening. 
Letter states that the total revenue of the Adams Realty is twice that of Fitch Realty, but the actual amount is not mentioned. Also the average prices of total sales of both the realties are comparable with slight difference. The higher average price doesn't guarantee that most of the sales made by Adams Realty is higher than that of Fitch Realty. It might be possible that most of the homes sold by Fitch are priced well enough near the average total sales price, and Fitch may be rated higher in the customer satisfaction index than Adams Realty. 
Letter does not mention about the locality of the homes which are generally sold by both the realties. It may be possible, that Adams Realty sales homes mainly located in the more sought areas of the town which can be the reason of high average total sales.  
At the end of the letter, author expressed his personal experience with both the realties. He compares his experience with Fitch Realty ten years ago with the recent, last year experience with the Adams Realty. Such comparison is most likely to give a wrong impression, as ten years is long enough duration to bring a drastic change in the demand and price of homes in a city. Also, the prices of homes vary significantly by the affect of recession, inflation and other factors. 
The author of the letter may be a partisan of Adams Realty, and his personal opinion cannot be generalized for the whole community who avails the service of both the realties. 
Conclusively, the evidences presented by the author are weak, and altogether, they cannot support the final conclusion made by the author. To judge both the realties, author should consider the factors such as quality of service, time of sales, price charged and customer satisfaction in details.