Brooks: Buyers Face Four Challenges (“Emotional, Psychological, Cognitive, & Moral”) Leave it to an intellectual to over think buying a home. In a nutshell, that’s my reaction to New York Times columnist David Brooks’ piece, “The Home Buying Decision.” Customized Criteria Which isn’t to say Mr. Brooks’ column — destined to be emailed to Realtors...Read More
A first showing is pretty straightforward: it’s when a prospective Buyer, accompanied by their agent, views a “For Sale” home. Ergo, a second showing is when the Buyer likes it, and doubles back for a closer look (sometimes with friends, relatives and/or a contractor buddy in tow). So, what’s a “sort-of-second showing”? (my term). When...Read More
One Showing — or Two? If Sellers were OK with it — and Realtors’ “smart” keys worked then — it would be possible to show homes in late June in Minnesota between 9 and 10 p.m. After all, the sun sets after 9 p.m. on June 21, and twilight lingers almost till ten. Unfortunately (or maybe not...Read More
Law of Diminishing Returns Past Three or More Showings Want to handicap the odds of any given Buyer purchasing a home? Think of a Bell Curve, with the peak corresponding to 2-3 showings (call it “2.5”); the left tail 1 showing, and the right tail four or more showings. In other words . . . the...Read More
Enabling(?) Non-Committal Buyers (aka “Fence-Sitters”) One of the things that invariably happens in the course of representing a Seller is the Listing agent gets a request from a Buyer’s agent to “be kept in the loop.” Translation: ‘let me know if someone else is about to buy the home, so my client at least knows...Read More
The Relocation Fire Drill, or, “The Turbo-Charged Home Search” Relocation Buyers — often serial corporate transferees — present both opportunities and challenges for Sellers. First, the bad news: such Buyers typically look at LOTS of homes, across a wide range of neighborhoods and home styles. That’s because they don’t know the local community well or...Read More
