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In this illuminative ethnography, Besbris roots the macro-dynamics of real estate prices and neighborhood gentrification in the micro-sociological work done by agents driving up buyers' expectations and affordability thresholds. An entertaining read, it will cause more than one homeowner to look back on their own process and the subtle interactions by which they, too, were once 'upsold.' --Marion Fourcade, University of California, Berkeley Bravo Max Besbris, for deciphering the complex and deeply emotional process of buying a home. Drawing from engrossing interviews with New York sales agents and wealthy buyers, Upsold demonstrates the crucial role of intermediaries in shaping real estate markets. How much we are willing to pay for a home, how satisfied we are with our purchase, and even where we choose to live are contingent on interactions with real estate agents. A pathbreaking contribution to relational economic sociology, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning how markets really work. --Viviana A. Zelizer, Princeton University In recent years, urban sociologists have paid increasing attention to how people make decisions--about housing, schools, job finding, and more. Besbris makes a powerful contribution to this work by examining how people decide what to buy, why they often end up paying more than they expected, and how realtors play a bigger role in the process than realized. Upsold is based on a remarkable amount of data, including interviewers with buyers, realtors, and others, and quantitative analyses of the spatial patterns of realtor concentration. But perhaps its most intriguing sources of data are its direct, tag-along observations of the interaction between buyer and realtor as they make their round, an interaction where, as the author argues, the price and purchase decisions are actually produced. The book reveals the fascinating ways these costly decisions end up being not only less rational but also less individual, more emotional, and far more interpersonally determined than many have supposed. A contribution to the sociological study of economic decisions, of taste, of neighborhoods, of network brokerage, and of housing, Upsold is wonderfully wide-ranging in its implications. --Mario Luis Small, Harvard University

In recent years, urban sociologists have paid increasing attention to how people make decisions--about housing, schools, job finding, and more. Besbris makes a powerful contribution to this work by examining how people decide what to buy, why they often end up paying more than they expected, and how realtors play a bigger role in the process than realized. Upsold is based on a remarkable amount of data, including interviewers with buyers, realtors, and others, and quantitative analyses of the spatial patterns of realtor concentration. But perhaps its most intriguing sources of data are its direct, tag-along observations of the interaction between buyer and realtor as they make their round, an interaction where, as the author argues, the price and purchase decisions are actually produced. The book reveals the fascinating ways these costly decisions end up being not only less rational but also less individual, more emotional, and far more interpersonally determined than many have supposed. A contribution to the sociological study of economic decisions, of taste, of neighborhoods, of network brokerage, and of housing, Upsold is wonderfully wide-ranging in its implications. --Mario Luis Small, Harvard University In this illuminative ethnography, Besbris roots the macro-dynamics of real estate prices and neighborhood gentrification in the micro-sociological work done by agents driving up buyers' expectations and affordability thresholds. An entertaining read, it will cause more than one homeowner to look back on their own process and the subtle interactions by which they, too, were once 'upsold.' --Marion Fourcade, University of California, Berkeley Bravo Max Besbris, for deciphering the complex and deeply emotional process of buying a home. Drawing from engrossing interviews with New York sales agents and wealthy buyers, Upsold demonstrates the crucial role of intermediaries in shaping real estate markets. How much we are willing to pay for a home, how satisfied we are with our purchase, and even where we choose to live are contingent on interactions with real estate agents. A pathbreaking contribution to relational economic sociology, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning how markets really work. --Viviana A. Zelizer, Princeton University

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Max Besbris is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This is his first book.  

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