My buyers must think that I am an absolute buzzkill sometimes.
How can an agent possibly find something wrong with 25 straight houses?
Why would a Realtor always harp on the negative instead of getting excited about the positive?
This market is why.
When I am working with buyers, I tend to point out every conceivable flaw with each property we visit. I have literally talked clients out of purchasing homes. Be it a busy street, a vacant lot next door with suspect zoning, goofy architecture, etc, I am ruthless. An anti-salesman if you will. Not only does this give me credibility when I actually do show some excitement about a property that I think is a terrific value, but it protects the buyer’s future interests. Inside every good buyer’s agent is a listing agent. I know that someday I will be called upon to sell the home that my clients are buying today. Out of pure selfishness, I want to make sure I have a saleable listing. That means great location, great condition and great price. This brings my goals in perfect alignment with theirs. An agent who focuses only on today’s sale cannot be trusted to secure the best value and highest possible appreciation schedule. Many agents will spend thousands of dollars soliciting the listings of highly desirable properties. I would rather secure great listings by finding my buyers great houses.
And in a difficult market like today’s, the last thing I want is to tell a client that his/her home will be darn near impossible to sell because of some flaw that we overlooked. Or that there is not much wiggle room on price because we did not secure the best value. While many properties are sitting on the market, the good ones are selling. The lesson to be learned is that the pain many sellers are experiencing right now is not entirely market driven. Some blame must be levied for purchasing with rose colored glasses, and not being nearly critical enough when assessing the property.
So for the foreseeable future, you will see me with a smile on my face most all of the time … except when showing property.
