I come across fascinating clients from time to time, some with amazing backgrounds and stories- from all walks of life. It's what makes my job, amongst other things, so interesting and not at all dull..... not to mention challenging at times
I was recently doing some marketing exercises at a workshop and one of them involved finding commonalities amongst our clients/customers ie: common traits, behaviour patterns, demographics etc. I found this quite a useful task in breaking down the types of home buyers and investors who use our services and ended up with a list of similarities in behaviour patterns.
When breaking them down further, it became obvious that the majority of buyers who come to us have already suffered (I use the word suffered rather than experienced as its more apt in this industry!) from either Information Overload or Analysis Paralysis or a healthy combination of both! Sure, it doesn't apply to all enquiries but the majority do come to us, after having searched endlessly (often for months and occasionally years) without success- most are frustrated to say the least. Some are jaded by their experiences, others have read wayyy too much info (no doubt on forums like this one!) and are completely confused about which way to go, how much to spend, what to buy, how to structure, who to borrow from etc etc, whilst there are those who are simply sick and tired of the whole process and wish for a professional to do the work for them instead.
Reasons vary but when I delve deeper and ask enquirers how long they've been searching, how many properties they've inspected, how many they've missed out on etc it never ceases to amaze me how many buyers never get off their office chair to physically inspect! One recent caller led me on, and had me believing he was practically a local expert in this suburb. Telling me he'd checked out hundreds of properties over the last few weeks, I expressed surprise that he had that much time on his hands given his busy IT job. When the truth emerged that he hadn't actually yet driven to the suburb naturally the conversation took a different turn
I'm so used to hearing from such armchair experts now that nothing really surprises me. Sure, the net has made us all closer and we become almost comfortable in thinking we really know a place from the safety of our PC screen, but I do encourage callers like this to at least get off their chairs, and waste a Saturday or two taking a drive before they make a decision on area. What can look good on the net ain't necessarily the same in real life. I'm sure all of you who have actually inspected after netsurfing can identify here!
Naturally absentee buyers have little choice, as they rely on our expertise and guidance (and lots of photos, reports, maps, charts etc) to select a property that suits, but really there's no excuse for buyers who live in the same state to come and take a look before making a decision on area. We've had the odd NSWelshman who is ok with buying sight unseen but they're usually seasoned investors who run the numbers and are very unemotionally unattached
So, to all you armchair buyers out there who spend so much time on realestate and domain you've developed neck cramps and chair-ritis take a break, get some fresh air and go for a drive. You'll find a whole different world out there
I was recently doing some marketing exercises at a workshop and one of them involved finding commonalities amongst our clients/customers ie: common traits, behaviour patterns, demographics etc. I found this quite a useful task in breaking down the types of home buyers and investors who use our services and ended up with a list of similarities in behaviour patterns.
When breaking them down further, it became obvious that the majority of buyers who come to us have already suffered (I use the word suffered rather than experienced as its more apt in this industry!) from either Information Overload or Analysis Paralysis or a healthy combination of both! Sure, it doesn't apply to all enquiries but the majority do come to us, after having searched endlessly (often for months and occasionally years) without success- most are frustrated to say the least. Some are jaded by their experiences, others have read wayyy too much info (no doubt on forums like this one!) and are completely confused about which way to go, how much to spend, what to buy, how to structure, who to borrow from etc etc, whilst there are those who are simply sick and tired of the whole process and wish for a professional to do the work for them instead.
Reasons vary but when I delve deeper and ask enquirers how long they've been searching, how many properties they've inspected, how many they've missed out on etc it never ceases to amaze me how many buyers never get off their office chair to physically inspect! One recent caller led me on, and had me believing he was practically a local expert in this suburb. Telling me he'd checked out hundreds of properties over the last few weeks, I expressed surprise that he had that much time on his hands given his busy IT job. When the truth emerged that he hadn't actually yet driven to the suburb naturally the conversation took a different turn
I'm so used to hearing from such armchair experts now that nothing really surprises me. Sure, the net has made us all closer and we become almost comfortable in thinking we really know a place from the safety of our PC screen, but I do encourage callers like this to at least get off their chairs, and waste a Saturday or two taking a drive before they make a decision on area. What can look good on the net ain't necessarily the same in real life. I'm sure all of you who have actually inspected after netsurfing can identify here!
Naturally absentee buyers have little choice, as they rely on our expertise and guidance (and lots of photos, reports, maps, charts etc) to select a property that suits, but really there's no excuse for buyers who live in the same state to come and take a look before making a decision on area. We've had the odd NSWelshman who is ok with buying sight unseen but they're usually seasoned investors who run the numbers and are very unemotionally unattached
So, to all you armchair buyers out there who spend so much time on realestate and domain you've developed neck cramps and chair-ritis take a break, get some fresh air and go for a drive. You'll find a whole different world out there