Give them a reason…

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Are you easily influenced by someone telling you what to do (Vote for this candidate! Buy this house! Shop at Central! Eat at Joes!)? Probably not… at least I hope not. How effective are their marching orders to you if they just blurt out some command without giving you a reason to do what they say? If you are open to new ideas and suggestions, would you want to know why one idea is better suited to you than another? Would you ask questions before you spent money or cast your ballot or sat down for a combination plate at a restaurant you knew nothing about? Your vote, or your expenditure, might be influenced by someone telling you what they knew, sharing their knowledge with you; and you then use that to help you with your decision.

Isn’t real estate just the same? How many people do you think actually buy the first house they see? Well, some could say they have shown 50 homes and still the potential buyer has not blinked. But its a process of learning and education and familiarity and getting to know what you yourself like and need before you take such a big step. Casting a vote is not considered as large a decision as buying a home. Yet you would probably welcome information about the candidates so you could later feel that you made the right choice. Try buying a house over the internet. It does happen; I myself have sold a home (albeit to a family member) solely based on the information I provided and the internet photos available to anyone. But that is extremely rare. Those buyers already knew the area quite well and asked me plenty of questions so they would not later be sadly surprised.

Give someone a reason to do something you want them to do. I can no more sell a house than I can give away a One Hundred dollar bill without a good reason, a reason that is convincing to the prospect that will end up with the results of the decision. My thinking on this comes from today’s headlines that scream that some areas of our country may never recover from the real estate slump they are in. Specifically some areas of Nevada and Arizona, for example, were built based on speculation that the inflow of people moving to those areas would continue nearly forever. But if there are no jobs to lure people there, and many of those that already live there are unemployed, just how will those new tract homes 60 miles away from downtown Las Vegas or downtown Phoenix ever sell? And to whom? These are not retirement villages with lakes and golf courses and easy access to shopping. These are tract homes that might have become homes that families raised their children in while they climbed the economic ladder and built up equity. Who will ever buy them? I don’t know, but if you think I should, or anyone else should consider the idea, please give us a reason or two.

When Detroit hit almost bottom with car manufacturers failing and laying off thousands, and related businesses suffering right alongside, homes in parts of Detroit became so cheap to buy because there were no buyers. Nobody was moving into town, and no jobs were beckoning. Yet I heard stories of some buying homes for under $25,000 (with all city services available) and planning on making a go of it and hoping others would do the same and the neighborhoods would gradually recover. This is in a city where you are surrounded by retail services, hospitals, schools, fire departments, etc. That’s not the same as the tract housing on the outer limits of Las Vegas or Phoenix. Can you picture the news report when bulldozers start leveling some of those homes as too close to worthless and too much of a safety hazard to allow to remain?

What exactly will that do… the bulldozing of a subdivision full of tract homes that all stand vacant and in various stages of completion or disrepair? One thing it will do is lower the available inventory of homes for sale in that area. By lowering the count of inventory, you are messing with supply and demand. By reducing supply you are potentially sharpening demand, one baby step at a time. Now that’s a novel idea, to lower inventory to increase demand. Where have we heard that before? If you have something that people can get anywhere and maybe for less money, why would they buy from you? If you have something unique that there are very few of and your price is competitive, you just might have a buyer stalking you. Selling a home today requires you to stand out from the crowd and ALSO be the lowest price of all similar homes in your area. If you are unwilling to get to that place, then give us another reason or two why your home should be the one that sells next.

Job creation is on every politician’s lips these days and they all know exactly how the small business owner feels about adding jobs someday. And until job opportunities start increasing, how in the heck can you expect people to choose your area to move to and begin shopping for a home? You want to sell to a retired couple or someone looking for a second home? Great! Good luck! Position your home correctly based on appearance, quality of construction and materials used, and the all important price. And then move it to a hilltop with million dollar views or put it on the ninth fairway overlooking the frog pond. Give someone a reason to do what you want them to do.

Imagine all the quotes…

“It was priced so low I just had to buy it without knowing what I would do with it”

“My new job is just a mile and a half away and there are bike lanes too!”

“My mother-in-law needs more care these days and the best medical care is right here so that’s why we bought here”

“I was able to negotiate a seller financed deal where I didn’t have to work thru an institutional lender just to get declined”

“My reason is simple; I need to move to a bigger home to accommodate my growing family”

“Since the kids have moved out we no longer needed 2800 square feet of space to heat and cool”

Let me hear your reasons. See prior post I would like to live 5 minutes from the plaza…

Posted in Posts & Updates, Santa Fe area real estate.

The writer is a 68 year-old young man engaged as an active REALTOR (associate broker) with Keller Williams, in real estate sales and management in the Santa Fe NM market area. My career has been in and around the real estate industry for more than 35 years, ranging from mortgage lending (interim, commercial, residential); residential property management and leasing; shopping center development and leasing; real estate sales; sales training; title insurance as an executive and an escrow officer; various management positions; consulting and other related activities. That plus a bunch of banking experience including our family-owned Bank of Santa Fe in the 1980s. Where has the time gone?
My background means you have my working knowledge of the entire transaction process at your disposal. That comes with honesty and no bullshit.