For 95% of all Americans, buying a home is the biggest debt they’ll ever have.
It’s up to your Realtor to ask you the right questions. Understanding what you want in a home is just the first step. For Realtors, it’s easy to ask the questions … It’s hard for some though to really hear your answers… and I think that’s where many Realtors fall short.
Finding a home has two parts… uncovering what you DO want … and allowing you to convey what you DON’T want.
When we first moved to Florida (decades ago) and were house-hunting, our Realtor drove me by one particular home 6 or 8 times as we scoured the neighborhood together. (I literally mean that we passed in front of that house, driving in the car as we were driving to preview other homes.) Each time, I’d point it out to our Realtor, commenting to her that it was just the type of house we were looking for. Yes… It was for sale. There was a FOR SALE sign in the front. She assured me that it was above our pricepoint. We did have a very strict pricepoint, and in those days, Realtors didn’t have today’s technology. All our Realtor knew was that the house was “over our budget” because she stopped the search exactly at the price I asked her to… and I was holding her to that pricepoint. She’d printed out every house in the neighborhood that fell within our financial “perameters”… and that house was not on the list. I had every intention of staying within budget, and she knew it.
Well , we eventually bought that home. After looking at probably close to 100 homes, and putting an offer in on one (which the seller rejected outright even though it was just $3,000 below the seller’s asking price), I was ready to throw in the towell. Yes, it was a seller’s market, and that particular seller got 3 offers in one afternoon… two above asking price! In my doom and gloom over losing the house we’d put an offer in on, our Realtor looked up the price of the OTHER house that I’d been drooling over. She discovered that it was listed for $1,000 above what I’d said our top list price would be. In all fairness, the property was actually listed (for some reason that, to this day, makes NO SENSE to me) as a ‘range’ … a range of $100,000. (Why a listing agent would list any house for a RANGE … whatever that range… $800,000-$900,000 … or otherwise… instead of just picking ONE list price is beyond me!) Anyway… We bought it…. at the bottom of their ‘range’.
The fact that our Realtor listened (staying within our parameters… without pushing us beyond our budget) was commendable. Pushing buyers to go beyond their comfort zone is unfortunately something that some Realtors do regularly… and it’s unfortunate. Fortunately for us, our Realtor had a strong moral compass, compassion, and the tenacity to keep trying – even after we were ready to halt our search.
After relocating to Miami, I went into Real Estate, and got a Real Estate license in Florida. My daughter grew up in Miami, graduated from the University of Miami, and the two of us are Real Estate partners with EWM.
I can assure you that knowing what our buyers “must have” or “can’t live without” helps expand and narrow the search. We definitely want to know your ‘wish list’… and we definitely need to hear what you DON’T like too. People who like everything are the hardest to sell. As a kid, my mom often suggested I “oust” options, whittling the choices down (instead of pressing for an intantaneous decision). Sometimes, the things we all learn about the time we are in kindergarten really do hold true. Helping you convey what you hate, eliminate choices, and express your concerns is a key in helping us both find you the right home.
We appreciate that you follow our blog MiamiRealEstateCafe.com , and we look forward to working with you when you are ready to buy or sell your next property in Miami … or elsewhere. You are more than welcome to contact us here , or on our cellulars: Vicki Restivo 305-793-1365 … Alexandra Restivo 305-632-0164 … The Restivo Team.
