Did You Sell Them A House?
“Did you sell them a house?” That’s what my dad always asks me when I tell him I’ve been out showing homes to some clients. My dad sees real estate agents like most people do – as sales people. In fact, most real estate agents see themselves as sales people, as do their managers.
I have a different perspective on “selling” homes. My approach to selling is to help my clients buy. I want my clients to make their own decisions. Good decisions of course. To do that, they need me to bring information and knowledge to them. I give them my opinions and advice but it’s always their call. I don’t sell them a house; instead I help them buy a home.
When it comes to buying anything these days, there’s lots of information that if you had and understood it all, you would be a better consumer. You would be more informed, more knowledgeable, and better prepared to make good buying decisions.
Real estate is no different. There’s tons of information about buying homes, getting mortgages, inspecting houses, negotiating good deals, and on and on. My clients usually don’t know as much as I wish they did about the homes they are thinking of buying. They certainly don’t know much about the whole home acquisition process. I don’t expect them to, it’s not something most people study or do very often. And there’s so much to digest. How homes are built – good, bad, old, new. There’s all the financing stuff – credit scores, down payments, first mortgage, second mortgage. Piles of forms and paperwork. Title and legal issues. Inspections. Closings. It’s pretty overwhelming!
My job is pretty straight-forward: to make sense out of all the information and to educate my clients sufficiently so they can make good decisions, and to show my clients the smoothest path for them to follow to achieve their goals.
I don’t sell my clients anything. Instead, I give them information, I help them focus on their goals, and I do everything I can to make sure they are well informed home buyers.
So, no Dad, I didn’t sell them a house. But they did buy a really great home today!
