This is a true story that I have slightly embellished to make my point. When you finally find the house you want, you fall in love and you tell your friends about it, you are helping someone else buy it out from under you. Here's the story:
A buyer of mine, a few years back, had spent about a year looking for the house of their dreams. We saw many houses and dismissed many more on the internet. Finally they found the right house and after a year knew it. This couple had also developed a sense of the value and knew what she was willing to pay for it. Finally. During the year there were episodes of despair and the belief that it would never happen.
This couple was excited that they "found their house" and wanted everyone to know about it and so they told everyone, they told friends, they discussed it at the local gym. These friends were willing to forego the friendship because finding the right house was more important. You never know who you are talking to when you discuss a house o the details of a negotiation. The seller's daughter could be that nice girl on the treadmill next to you. The more you talk the more you hand over all your hard work to another buyer.
Well, one night this couple went out to dinner with her parents at a local Italian restaurant. Excitedly they told her parents all about the house and what a good deal they felt they had gotten. They described in detail the negotiations and felt they had handled it with savvy and knowledge. They were proud of how they handled the process and wanted to impress their parents with their knowledge.
The problem was that the seller was sitting at the next table. This buyer had never met the seller as they were never home during showings. The seller heard the story from the next table, recognized the negotiations and amounts and heard "we got such a good deal!" Ooops.
They lost the house.
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