It’s a Delicate Balance

Monday Morning Match is a simple post – maybe a quote, inspirational story or idea – intended to spark some motivation inside each of you so your week gets off to a fantastic start on Monday morning.

It’s a delicate balance

In almost every real estate transaction, at least on the residential side, there is a mixture of emotion and logic. The clients will be overwhelmed with emotions so it’s important for the Realtor to even things out with a healthy dose of logic.

Buyers see houses on line and get excited by the pictures and descriptions. When they pull up in front of a home, they start to envision their kids playing basketball in the driveway or enjoying a warm sunset on the back deck overlooking the swimming pool or trampoline. As they walk through a home for sale, they can picture which corner of the family room they will put the Christmas tree or how they will decorate the nursery for the baby that is still a few years away.

Sellers are usually filled with emotions as well. In many cases, they have started and raised families, hosted guests, and seen seasons of their lives roll by. Over the years, they turned the house into a home, filled with memories, laughter, and dreams still unrealized. From the notches on the basement doorway tracking the growth of the kids to the tree out back that was planted when Grandpa passed, away, there will always be that little piece of a Sellers heart and soul they leave behind when the “Sold” sign goes up.

The initial Buyer Consultation helps set expectations and allows the Realtor to create an easy to understand pathway to follow (from the search all the way to the sale), and the Seller Consultation is ideal to discover a customer’s urgency and motivation to get the home sold. In all my years of working with Buyers, I can hardly remember any of the initial discussions about bedrooms, baths, square footage. Almost all of my Sellers through the years had logical expectations such as net proceeds, timing, and expectations for a successful transaction.

Not surprisingly, years later, when I run into a client at a ballgame, local pub, or at a client appreciation event, they rarely say to me how much they have been enjoying the 2335 square feet of living space or how proud they were that their home was viewed on Zillow 1,286 times in the first two weeks. They’re usually too busy telling me about their new puppy they added to the family or how they heard from their old neighbors how awesome the new family that moved into their old place is.

When given the choice between logic and emotion, your clients are going to be all in on emotion, so it’s probably best for you to balance that out with logic.

Remember, logic makes sense but emotions make all of the senses.

Photo courtesy of Jon Sailer

Photo courtesy of Berkay Gumustekin