In central Arizona it is common for buyers to have a dream of buying and owning a “ranch” yet this may look like a small horse property, an equestrian estate or a farm, rather than “The Ponderosa.” In my previous career as a banker I helped a customer purchase a boat, a rather large boat! As we talked through his plans to ship “the boat” from the manufacturer to its ocean home the question came up if he might actually be buying a “yacht.” Let’s be real, if you were buying a large floating object wouldn’t it be much cooler to own a yacht than a boat? Candidly, I liked the sound of making a loan on a yacht so I set out to learn the difference between the two!
As a ranch kid from the mountains of Arizona with no knowledge of boats I had to get creative to learn how to determine if the boat was a yacht, or just a boat. I had seen ads in The Wall Street Journal for yacht sales in Newport Beach, CA so I called for a quick lesson on the difference between yachts and boats. I was very surprised to learn that there is no cut-and-dried definition of a yacht and the determination lies in the eyes of the beholder, or boat owner as the case may be.
I have replayed this story many times in my real estate career as I work with buyers and sellers of “ranch” property. You see, my definition of a ranch is skewed based on my life experience. I grew up on a 115,000 acre cattle ranch that ran 1,100 head and in my early 20’s I managed a ranch that was almost 60 miles from end-to-end. You know it’s a “big outfit” when it takes about 10 minutes to fly across….in a Lear jet, but that’s another story.
As a Realtor in rural markets (see central AZ properties) we have a unique opportunity to associate with buyers and sellers from all walks of life. The challenge can be interpreting what the customer really wants, regardless of the words and phrases they use to describe their dream property. A garden to one person may be a farm to another, and a ranch to me may be way too far from Starbucks and Dillard’s for the “ranch buyer” who wants a nice house with horse privileges close to town. The key is truly learning what people want without drawing conclusions based on our definitions and life experience.
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