Why Are They Moving?

How about a positive like This house is so extraordinary and the owners are such generous people, they feel bad about keeping it for themselves, so they are going to do the ultimate unselfish thing by letting someone else own it.

Liz & Bill - This is a question I hate getting too, but don't mind asking and a majority of agents tell me the answer without even asking.  I love it when I hear they have a new job 1,000 miles away and "have to sell."

I love Deanna's retort.  Kudos to you for actually protecting your client's best interests.  I too am amazed at what some listing agents will say when asked and often wonder if they have their seller's permission to say it!

I think you should make your list into a poster for your office wall :)

I am going with the voices in their head reason.  Nothing like a good paranoid schizophrenic or demonically inhabited seller.  I love when I have those as clients!

I love your alternative response list - very funny!  They are moving because they want to seems like the perfect response when asked why your seller is moving.

Loved the list - I do get asked by buyer's all the time while perusing a home.  I am always curious if they think that's something they should be privy to know.

Seemingly more and more people fit into this category.  Must be the economy...either that or they all have a flaming case of HEAT RASH.

That is a great post!  In reading it, I found myself daydreamaing about situations that could have used these thoughts!  Thanks!  :) 

LOL! Awesome blog post! You know. . . I think I might have been to a couple of these houses! ;) Personally there are only a couple of things that I would want to know about before moving into the house.

1. If someone died there or was murdered in the house, (as shallow and weird as this sounds, there is a really interesting smell that never goes away, and that you literally can't get rid of, so usually you don't have to even ask.) and

2. If someone living in the house had Aids or was HIV positive (legally I believe you are not allowed to tell clients that for privacy reasons, but my daughter currently has a compromised immune system from surgery so it's necessary for us to know. It only means a bit more careful cleaning of the house is required and sellers have been fine with telling us once they know why we are asking.)

Other than those, well...Bring on the biker gangs! They are just as susceptible to amazing, oven fresh chocolate chip cookies as the next guy! ;)

Bill - I'll remember that if we ever decide to move to Ohio. ;) And the c.c. cookies worked beautifully with the street gang that moved into the house across from us in AZ (they were actually very sweet to us, and even helped us when we moved out). . . . Besides, they are REALLY good cookies! ;)

With a murder you can usually Google the street address and it will usually come up with a newspaper that covered the story. With a natural death, it's a little trickier, but like I said. . . the smell can get interesting. :(

Liz:  I knew we were on the same wave length -- that's the same retort we use "Because they want to!"