Legal Concept of “Ripeness”
Even though it’s been decades since I practiced corporate law, I use the training practically daily.
To pick just one example, I consciously apply the legal doctrine of “ripeness” to prioritize decision-making — mine and my client’s.
In the legal world, “ripeness” means that courts will not consider an issue until it’s “ripe” to be decided: that is, it’s a here-and-now problem (vs. hypothetical), and has been distilled into a clearly focused, legal question.
In real estate, it means tackling things in order, and not speculating about multiple, possible scenarios.
“What If There Were No Hypothetical Questions?”
So, when a new property comes on the market that my (Buyer) client is excited about, I try to avoid jumping to questions like, “why is the Seller selling?”**; “Do you think it will be in multiples — and if so, what’s it likely to sell for?”; and/or “How old is the roof?”
Rather, my instincts are to get my client in as soon as possible to take a look.
If that’s not possible, schedule-wise, Plan B is for me to preview and report back.
If my client likes the home (or I think they will), there’s plenty of time to answer their other questions.
If they don’t — which is more often the case — none of those questions matter.
Or as (former) lawyers like to say, “they’re moot.” 🙂
**While I understand why Buyers (always, always) want to know the Seller’s motivation, they should understand that good listing agents are never going to divulge that — or at least, anything that will harm the Seller’s interests.
So, the most I’ll offer as a listing agent (representing the Seller) is some variation of, “the Seller needed a bigger/smaller/different home in another location,” or an even more innocuous, “it just was time for the Owner to sell.”
