Susan Haughton, of Alexandria, VA hits this one out of the park! A good lesson reminding REALTORs that the homebuying process can be overwhelming and our "must haves" are negotiable. Even when we're absolutely, positively adamant that they are not.
And, for those of you "outside" our crazy industry...let this put your mind at ease! Some of us really do "get it!" and that's the truth! :)
Although I pride myself on being pretty darn patient with my clients who are searching for that perfect home here in Alexandria and while I assure them they should take as much time as they need to feel comfortable with their home buying decision, wow, until I started going out with my husband out to look for a new house for us, I was not prepared for what a PITA client *I* was going to turn out to be.
After looking at dozens of homes (not to mention dozens more online), all of which met our needs ON PAPER, I realized the other night how seriously out-of-control I apparently was when I heard my husband uttering these words, "well, with the dirt that they dig up for the new pool, they could fill in the other pool and we could build the patio over that. We wouldn't have to worry about removing the other pool."
The problem he was trying to solve? A house we sort of like has an enclosed pool adjacent to the house but I don't like where the pool is.
Sigh.
When my husband starts talking about filling in a practically-new-perfectly-good-not-inexpensive pool in order to build another not-inexpensive pool (something in which he has absolutely zero interest, I must add), something is seriously out of whack in the universe. (Or perhaps he is as tired of the indecision as I am and simply wants it to be over). Of course, if I LOVED LOVED LOVED the house, I wouldn't be making such a big deal over the pool...problem is, I want to like the house, but, I just don't even though it has every single thing - every thing - I said I wanted.
We have seen a number of houses we really like, all of which come with "but we would need to...." qualifiers ranging from the simple to the ridiculous. Electric cooking? Blech. Electric heat? No way. One full bath? Really? Seriously? No. What do you mean, this area doesn't have cable? How do you get, uh, your high speed internet? Oh, you don't. Hmmm...no.
Is the perfect house out there? I don't know. Have I have done a 180 degree turn from my "ABSOLUTELY-MUST-HAVE-NO-COMPROMISE-CONSIDERED" list? Oh, yeah. And the hunt continues, with ever expanding parameters.
Sometimes as an agent - I readily admit and suspect I am not alone - I get a wee bit frustrated when I have looked and looked and previewed for clients only to have them say, "nope, this isn't it" when everything - EVERYTHING!!! - is telling me it SHOULD be it. How can this NOT BE IT? Come on! It has absolutely everything you told me you wanted. Seriously, this really isn't it?
It's even more frustrating when they suddenly start sending ME listings they have found in LISTINGBOOK that aren't AT ALL what they told me they wanted...frustrating because I feel *I* should have found those listings for them, but...but...but they weren't what they said they wanted.
But, I do understand. Totally. Sometimes we really DO have to look at a lot of properties - and a lot of totally different properties - before our clients can start to hone in on what their priorities REALLY are. Sometimes what they discover surprises even them.
While it is critical to listen to what our clients say, it's also important to be a little creative in our searches, too....and when it becomes apparent they are no longer sure of what they really want, it's even more important to have our antennae up for those important clues that will help us help them.
Through it all, we need to be flexible and empathetic - folks cannot always articulate WHAT they want until they have had a chance to work through some things in their minds and with each other.
At the end of the day, we need to go with the flow sometimes and trust our client's intuition. And we also need to resist the impulse to call them liars.
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Great post! Reminds me of "physician heal Thy self".
Maybe you really don't know what you want even though you say you do? You can live anywhere really but do you want to?
Shawna--I thought the same thing! Sometimes we have to experience things on the other side in order to truly appreciate the "experience". Have a great day!
Lyn--LOL...sounds like a song in the making ;) Sing it, girl!
The key is in the listening. How often can we hear "ourselves"? My biggest fear is if and when I decide to sell. Do I have to have buyers coming in to look? Critisize? Not fall in love? How dare they. And I won't be the listing agent. Did that on my Moms house, big mistake! For me.
Kim, I am fond of telling clients that the buyer has to Kiss a bunch of frogs before they find they're Prince...Even when I thought that was a frog too.
Ross, you're so right. I remember how personally I took every little thing when we sold our last house. That was before I became an agent, but I know I'm still the wrong gal to take on my own house. Unlike you, however, I'd be more worried I'd kill the sale by constantly blathering about all the quirks and challenges we've dealt with in our 200 yr old tumbledown farmhouse. Fortunately, I know a few really good agents who are more than up to the task :)
Steve, perfect analogy! And the frog Prince is definitely in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes all we can do is lead them to the pond and marvel at the lily pad they end up choosing. The only folks more surprised than me, are the buyers themselves! <ribbitt, ribbitt>
Do we ever really know what we want? No we don't. It's always good to have the shoe on the other foot and see life from the other side. Great post!
Sharon--We owe it to our clients to allow them the prerogative to change their minds! Is there anything better than seeing the unexpected joy on someone's face when they stumble upon something that they never considered before and it turns out to be a perfect fit?