You Have to See the Bad Homes to Appreciate the Good Homes

Have you ever worked with a buyer and after seeing 50 homes, you find the most incredible deal that they are ever going to see.  They have a limited budget but want to live in a very desirable, convenient location so of course, they are making a lot of compromises in order to keep to their budget.  You are all set to rush back to the office and write up an offer because you just know that this home isn't going to last long.  You've spent the time educating your buyers on what's out there in this area in their price range and they realize that it's a real deal. 

But wait.  Before they do anything, they promised the wife's dad that they would first get his blessing before they put in any offers.  The wife's dad has bought 5 homes over his lifetime and knows what he's doing.

I'm sure you know how it goes.  The dad sees it and begins kicking the tires.  He points out the penny size amount of rot on the bottom of the door trim.  He shakes the toilet and finds that it's loose.  He finds a window that is stuck.  Of course, he lives 30 miles outside of the city where for the same price you can get three times the house.  He tells them that they need to find something better because this house isn't worth the price.  Say what?  How would he know?

Without the perspective of seeing all of the other houses out there, the dad really can't appreciate what a great deal this is.  If he would have seen the 50 homes that the kids did, he would probably tell them to jump on it.

It's like most things in life.  You must know bad to appreciate good.  I'm not saying to go and look at awful homes on purpose, but in the course of seeing a lot of potentially workable homes, you are naturally going to see a spectrum of conditions and qualities that will allow you to appreciate the ones on the "good" end of the spectrum that much more.  But then what is "good"?  It's very subjective. 

That's why I don't hesitate to show a lot of homes.  You need to put things in perspective.  Many times, there are many variables that go into the buying equation.  Some variables are weighted more heavily than others.  A home might have 9 out of the 10 things that the buyer wants but the one item that is missing might overweight all of the others combined. 

Do your buyers really share all of the intimate details that will be going into their decision?  Do you really think that they are going to be 100% open and honest with you?  Who are you?  Some real estate agent who they've gone out to see a few homes with.  Do you think that you can be Spock and do a Vulcan mind meld and go deep into their thoughts and understand exactly what will ring their bell?

What if the kids had just seen that one home or maybe just a couple of others.  They might have thought that it wasn't such a big deal.  They'll probably want to see a few more homes next weekend but by that time this incredible deal will be gone.  You, the real estate agent who knows that they'll be hard pressed to find another such deal, are pulling out your hair. You wonder why they don't trust you as an agent. Don't they realize how smart and experienced you are?

This is why I don't hesitate to show a lot of homes.  It might be more work for the buyer, but I don't want them to be cheated out of an education.  There's nothing better than an educated home buyer.