Property Point

It’s the story about 30,000 drowned pigs and how it applies to real estate, best business practices and life in general.

In an earlier life I was the editor of the Daily Mercury newspaper, back when it was published and printed six days a week and over 20,000 copies were sold on a Saturday. Different times in the media world.

Anyway, this one day we were following a story about flooding in Rockhampton.  

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Some days earlier there had been a lot of rain and some flooding in the Mackay region and, as often happens, the river system’s flood waters then made their way towards Rockhampton.

When there is a rain event upstream a lot of water from various rivers and tributaries runs into the low-lying Fitzroy River system and into Rockhampton.

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It is very predictable and Rocky authorities can often establish that when there is flooding further north in places like Mackay that in a week’s time the Rocky area will be flooded.  

So up in nearby Mackay we were following the approaching flood and in communication with our sister paper in Rocky who were giving it massive coverage. It wasn’t Mackay so it wasn’t going to be front page in our paper but we were planning on a significant coverage.

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In the late afternoon one of our reporters came into my office and said: “30,000 pigs have drowned in the Rocky floods. They were washed away from a farm.”

I said: “Thirty thousand pigs!? That’s a lot of pigs. Can we check on that?”

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The reporter came back five minutes later and said: “The story’s right. The farmer told the Rocky journo thirty thousand pigs have drowned from his property upstream from Rocky. Rocky’s running the story.”

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I asked if we had photos and he said they didn’t but would let me know when they had some, although none arrived that evening. We went pretty big on the drowning, as the Page 3 or Page 5 lead story with the obvious headline of 30,000 pigs drowning in the Rocky floods.

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Early the next morning the young journalist who had told me about the thirty thousand pigs drowning approached my office and tentatively knocked on the door.

In a stammering voice he said: “Ah, look … about that, um, story about the, ah, thirty thousand pigs drowning near Rocky ...”

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I had an uneasy feeling, bordering on dread.

“Uh ha … what about the pig story?” I asked.

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He said: “It wasn’t thirty thousand pigs. It was 30 sows and pigs.”

I’m no mathematician but even I could work out that our story and big headline was out by about 29,970 dead pigs.

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I knew immediately how the miss-communication would have happened. A young Rocky reporter busily covering the floods. On the phone talking to a distressed farmer or piggery owner who blurts out: “Mate it’s terribly out here. I’ve lost 30 sows and pigs, all drowned.”

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If someone, speaking quickly, blurts out “thirty-sows-and-pigs” you can understand how someone could hear “thirty thousand pigs”. Also, who says “sows and pigs”? A piggery owner, obviously, but probably no-one else. Certainly not a reporter in the city.

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Anyway, we ran a correction the next day. The story reminds me that in life, real estate and business, listen to your gut. I had questioned the story. I thought 30,000 pigs was extremely unlikely but accepted it when the young reporter confirmed it. I should have asked more questions. I should have listened to my gut.

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In real estate, owners sometimes get the facts wrong … how many kilowatts in the solar system, how many litres the bore produces, when the previous owner had renovated the house. You can’t just pass these things on to a buyer as facts if you don’t know them 100 per cent true.

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You’ve got to be cautious, listen to your gut and check the facts.

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