"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.

Sample Answer:

In this letter, the homeowner argues that Adams Realty, an estate firm, is superior to Fitch Realty. Both are leading firms in the town. To strengthen this argument, the homeowner brings evidence in support. However, none of the evidence seems convincing - the evidence mentioned in support of the claim is just unsubstantiated assumptions.

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Firstly, the argument unconvincingly based on an assumption that the agents of these two firms have similar professional skills. The author also argues that more number of agents means greater efficiency. However, there is a lack of evidence in its support. It seems that agents in Fitch may have better abilities and they can deal with promoting sales of houses, but the fact is the number of agents in Fitch is relatively less than Adams. Apart from this, many agents of Fitch work only in part-jobs and it indicates that are prone to have a diverse circle of people from different fields. Thus, they have the potential to gain more clients if they start working as agents. It will definitely be a beneficial factor for the development of the firm by offering economical efficiency.

Secondly, the homeowner made another unfair assumption that these two firms had sold the same number of houses in the last year. As per his claims, a higher sale price means much more income. But that is not the fact – the letter shows no convincing evidence in supporting this claim. Lack of evidence highlights a possibility that in last year Adams sold 5 houses each for $168000, whereas Fitch sold 15 houses each for $144000. It shows that Fitch Realty contains much more economic benefits compared to Adams Realty. Hence, the claim of the homeowner that Adams is superior to Fitch seems unreliable and unconvincing.

Thirdly, the homeowner assumed that the market conditions of the estate in recent times are similar to that of ten years ago. Here, Adams appears better as it had taken relatively less time to sell the houses last year, while ten years before, Fitch had taken 4 months to sell a single one. The assumption is unrealistic because everything cannot be the same after 10 years. Plus, there is no convincing evidence to support this assumption. If this assumption is true, there will be less improvement in people's lives – the factors which were true 10 years before cannot be equally relevant after ten years. Additionally, they may prefer investing in the houses to earn more money, rather than buying.

In conclusion, the argument seems unpersuasive - the author needs to gather more evidence to substantiate the assumptions – 1. The agents of the two firms have similar skills, 2. Two firms sold the same number of houses last year and 3. The estate market conditions are constant. Without evidence, the homeowner failed to convince me.