The book · Econ · Autumn 2027

The Property Lie.

„Psychologie beim Immobilienkauf“ – German edition · English edition not yet announced

You don’t make the biggest decision of your life with a calculator. You make it with a brain that systematically fools itself. This book shows how – and how to notice before it gets expensive.

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Die ImmobilienlügePsychologie
beim
ImmobilienkaufWas Makler wissen, aber Käufer nicht
Dr. Marcel HofeditzEcon

The book

What agents know and buyers don’t.

Behavioural economics, game theory and more than 20 real cases from the German property market – combined into a checklist that protects your next purchase from your own brain. Written by someone who knows both sides: the research and the negotiating table.

Title (German)
Psychologie beim Immobilienkauf
Publisher
Econ (Ullstein)
Release
Autumn 2027
English edition
Not yet announced

The thesis

Real estate is not a market of concrete. It is a market of psychology.

“Bricks and mortar”, “real assets”, “pension plan” – few investments are as culturally rooted. Yet the real return after inflation, interest and maintenance tells a different story than the barbecue talk. Fundamentals don’t decide who buys – anchors, herds and the belief that owning is always right do.

„Real estate is seen as the epitome of safety. But that safety is no law of nature. It is a narrative.“Dr. Marcel Hofeditz

The traps

Five biases. Real cases. Six-figure sums.

01 · Chapter 2

The endowment effect

What we own, we value more. A bias that distorts prices by six figures: Klaus from Stuttgart overpaid by €180,000.

02 · Chapter 3

The anchoring effect

The first price you hear shapes everything after. Julia and Tim ended up paying €200,000 too much – because an arbitrary first price set the frame.

03 · Chapter 4

Herd behaviour

Barbecue, 2021: everyone is buying, so you buy too. Collective enthusiasm feels like market analysis. It isn’t.

04 · Chapter 5

The croissant trap

A coffee, a croissant, a friendly agent. Reciprocity is the cheapest sales tool in the industry – and one of the most effective.

05 · Chapter 6

Projection bias

Sarah, Thomas and the pool: we buy for the life we imagine today, not the one we will live in ten years.

21

chapters

20+

real cases

50

years of return analysis

400+

scientific sources

Structure

Five acts. One verdict.

  1. I

    The bricks-and-mortar myth

    How a narrative is born and reinforces itself for decades.

  2. II

    Cognitive traps

    Endowment, anchoring, herding, reciprocity – the biases behind every purchase.

  3. III

    Interest & market logic

    Leverage, financing, opportunity cost – why we calculate wrong, systematically.

  4. IV

    Systemic lies

    Information asymmetry, greenwashing and the players who profit from it.

  5. V

    Structure over belief

    A rational decision model – and AI as the control instance.

Contents

21 chapters. One checklist.

  • 01Welcome to the greatest self-deception
  • 02The endowment effect
  • 03The anchoring effect
  • 04Herd behaviour
  • 05Reciprocity & the croissant trap
  • 06Projection bias
  • 08The 50-year calculation
  • 15Systemic lies
  • 20Trust, but verify
  • 21AI as the control instance

Plus interest mechanics, opportunity cost, game theory at the negotiating table, greenwashing, checklists for buyers and sellers and ready-to-use AI prompts.

AI agent · Live

Ask Doc.

Doc knows the theses, cases and tools from the book. Ask him whether you are walking into a trap – before you sign.

D

Doc

AI agent · The Property Lie

Hi, I’m Doc – the AI agent for Dr. Marcel Hofeditz’s book. Ask me about biases when buying property, about the cases in the book or about your own situation.

Doc is an AI. No investment, legal or tax advice.

Dr. Marcel Hofeditz

The author

Dr. Marcel Hofeditz

Decision researcher · Real estate entrepreneur · Platform founder

Doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Münster on trust, compliance and systematic misjudgement – exactly the biases at work in property markets.

As co-CEO of a family-run brokerage he was responsible for more than €600m in transactions. Today he is building Offmarketpool, the platform that opens up the hidden market for investment property.

More about Marcel →

From book to platform

The analysis became a tool.

The ideas in this book led to Offmarketpool: investment properties that are never publicly listed – matched via acquisition profiles, away from bidding wars and artificial scarcity.

1,100+

assets in the pool

€10bn+

volume

7,000+

investor profiles

Discover Offmarketpool →

Questions

What you should know

Is there an English edition?+

Not yet. The book is published in German as “Psychologie beim Immobilienkauf – Was Makler wissen, aber Käufer nicht” by Econ (Ullstein) in autumn 2027. Join the waitlist and you’ll be the first to know if an English edition follows.

Can you get rich with real estate?+

The book compares home ownership over 50 years with alternative investments – adjusted for inflation and costs. The result is far more sober than the bricks-and-mortar story. What matters is who calculates and who merely believes.

What is property psychology?+

The study of the cognitive biases that steer real estate decisions: endowment effect, anchoring, herd behaviour, reciprocity and projection bias – on the buyer’s and the seller’s side.

What are off-market properties?+

Properties that are not publicly listed but traded discreetly through networks or platforms such as Offmarketpool. Many psychological traps of the open market disappear there.

Waitlist · Autumn 2027

Whoever checks first, wins.

Join the waitlist and read along before the book is out. Free, unsubscribe any time.

21 Traps

Every two weeks one bias in property decisions – with a real case, one checking question and the moment it gets expensive.

First in line

Release date, pre-order link and news about an English edition go to the waitlist first.

Behind the scenes

How a book comes together at a major publisher – manuscript, cover, negotiations. Honest, even when it’s bumpy.