During this holiday season, I have been spending more time with my family, and less time working, as things are customarily slow at this time of year.  This extra time has given me the chance to get caught up on some of the programs that have been pushing our TIVO to maximum capacity.  One show that my wife and I particularly enjoy is "House."

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the show, it revolves around an unorthodox doctor that is a great diagnostician, but comes up short on the bedside manner.  Basically, he tells patients what they need to hear to give them the best chance for recovery, rather than what they want to hear to make them feel good, or give them a false sense of hope.  While watching a recent episode, it dawned on me that this is a similar approach to the one that I use with buyers and sellers as a REALTOR®. 

Since the play on words fit perfectly, I decided that I would start a recurring column in post form called Doctor House's Real Estate Chronicles.  In these posts, I will discuss real-life case studies based on my experience, and use them to help home buyers and sellers avoid the mistakes that others have made before them. 

Too many agents are willing to tell buyers and sellers what they want to hear so that they can "get" their business.  This approach doesn't work for me.  In the end, you usually wind up with unhappy clients that do not fulfill their dreams of buying the home that they really want, or sellers that end up having their home languish on the market.

My goal is to help homeowners sell their homes.  Many homes that are on the market now will expire without selling, and many more will come on the market and suffer the same fate.  Having worked with a number of expired listings, the one common theme is that they were overpriced.  There will always be agents that are willing to take overpriced listings, but it is not in anyone's best interest, particularly in a buyer's market.

My other goal is to help buyers find the home that they are looking for, in a price range that they can afford.  In the case of a number of Long Islanders, finding the home that fits their needs and their budget simultaneously may involve educating them about the opportunities that are available to them in other parts of the country.  Sometimes, it just isn't possible to meet all of the wants and needs at a certain price point.  Even with the market softening, it doesn't mean that buyers can dictate their price and still get everything that they want. This is just the reality of the Long Island real estate market. 

A home is the most expensive purchase that most people will make in their lifetime and likely the most expensive asset that they will ever sell.  There is no shortage of agents that are willing to tell people exactly what they want to hear, even if they know that it isn't the truth.  In my opinion, this creates nothing but contempt and lose-lose situations.

Please be on the lookout for this new series, as Doctor House tells homebuyers and sellers what they need to know to achieve their goals, even if it isn't exactly what they want to hear.