I am about to say some things here that may offend some people and there will be a significant amount of justification or rationalization. I am basing this on my experience of over 30 years in the real estate financing and deal structuring business. You can say that I am making generalizations, but you have to consider that I have been involved in over 5000 transactions in my lifetime so there is some basis for what this article is about.
There are not many agents, sellers, or buyers that are willing to do the hard work. Of course, you may be wondering what hard work there is to selling your property. Could it be the cosmetic repairs, the marketing, the showings, etc? Actually, the hard work I am talking about here is the “thinking” required to sell your property.
There are many things to consider when selling your property. However, most participants of the sale (agents, sellers, and buyers) limit their thinking and therefore limit their activities to help accomplish a successful sale. Here are three examples of limited thinking.
- Agents – adding the property to the MLS and letting the customer know how many visits to the listing on the internet or showings.
- Sellers – the only way to sell their home is to find a buyer who has cash or a loan.
- Buyers – the only way to buy a home is to go to the bank and arrange for a loan before making an offer on a property.
I know, there are many factors such as whether it is a Buyer’s Market, a Seller’s Market, what is the condition of the home, and on and on. However, again from my experience, it has been not taking the time to “think” of the transaction and what is the actual goal in selling the property that is missing.
I will offer one question you should be asking yourself before starting the process of selling/buying a property. “If we were talking about the sale/purchase of your property in one year, what would have had to happen for this to be the most beneficial transaction for you and your family?”
Please give this question some thought. And if you have an answer, I would love to hear from you because this would just be the first of several other questions to ensure you do the hard work, “Thinking”, before making one of the biggest financial decisions in your lifetime.
I do expect to hear from those that do the hard work, ”Thinking”, to not generalize and lump them in with everyone else. My reply is thank you for being this type of person and a professional in your career and wish you the best and continued success. To those agents, sellers, and buyers who would like to explore this further please contact me. I only ask that if you do reach out, please have the answer to the questions above about “what would need to happen…” so we have a starting point.
