An interesting discussion was started this morning on Twitter between REALTORS® in Michigan and North Carolina, concerning how many homes should be shown to a client before they buy. This started after a tweet from Diane Rish with a link to an article about an uber picky home buyer that saw 298 homes over a 2. 5 year period.
I don’t believe many people would think that it should take that many homes or even a third of that to make a good decision. How many homes should a buyer see before buying? Is there a number that is to many? Can a buyer see to few homes?
Personally, I have had buyers see 1 home and buy it, and I knew they made a good decision. I’ve had others see dozens of homes and make what I was sure was a bad decision.
Diane got it right this morning; “It depends on the buyer.” Some buyers feel they need to see a lot of homes to make sure they are getting a good deal, others find a real estate agent and place their trust in them.
I used to pride myself in being able to show on average just 3 homes before we would write a contract. These days that is harder as more of the purchase decisions are motivated by finding “a deal.” In our market “deals” normally have issues and buyers need to make apples to oranges comparisons. Nevertheless, I still feel that if my buyers haven’t seen the right house after a dozen, I’m not doing my job correctly.
How about you, as a buyer how many homes do you want to see? As an agent how many do you think should be shown at a minimum? How many need to be shown before you feel like you have missed what the buyer wants?
While it does seem that buyers think they should look at more homes in this market (most often because of large inventory and reducing pices), if the buyers have identified their needs, they are truly motivated, and the agent is listening, I normally shoot for a maximum of 10 homes that meet the criteria. After that, I think we have a criteria or motivation issue.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is up to the buyer. There should be enough houses that come as close as possible to meeting their needs that they would be able to make the right desision. There is a limit or a time that we as realtors should ask some questions as to what they are looing for and find out if they are serious about buying a house at this time.
ReplyDeleteI'm buying the home and I want to see all of the homes I can afford. I'll make the decision as to what I want, when I'm ready. I don't need a realtor to tell me anything, IT'S ALL ON THE WEB! Just show me the houses and you will make your money. Is that too much to ask?
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