‘Tis the Season… to List and Find Your Perfect Home
When working with potential home buyers, it seems real estate agents need to be all things to all people: therapist, coach, ally, confidant. That’s why, knowing that listing and buying a new home is a journey with many challenges and pitfalls, agents can be the difference between a high-dollar sale and a total miss. OFab feels your pain. Here’s how we can help agents and buyers alike.
1. Knowing the “Why”
WHY are you thinking of selling/moving/buying? There can be an infinite number of reasons, but some of the most common are...
Growing family
Relocating for work (or work from home)
Downsizing Empty Nesters
Retiring
OFab works closely with agents to assist you in developing easy strategies to move from one chapter of life to another. We reiterate and support your needs and the agent’s goals, providing a seamless and peaceful move into your perfect home.
2. Knowing the Anxiety
A good realtor knows the level of anxiety and specific concerns that you have, and knows how to address them, soothing your fears and encouraging you along your journey. Some of these fears are...
Can you afford it?
Can you find a house you’ll *really* love?
Location, location, location!
OFab can help you deal with the anxiety by creating lists for everything that needs to be done for your move. From establishing a move itinerary to developing an exact action plan that we can help you execute, OFab ensures that your agent can focus on getting you exactly what you want.
3. Knowing the Obstacles
Communication with your agent is key to anticipating future pitfalls or potential areas of hesitation. For instance…
He wants a wine cellar
She wants a studio
Kids want a pool, a tennis court and a music room, etc…
These are tricky areas an agent has to navigate through in order to keep the focus on the objective: to find you the perfect home. Therefore, an excellent agent’s knowledge of the market and available properties (e.g. pocket listings or secret showings) can make all the difference.
As we at OFab have worked with agents and clients in the housing market going on 10 years now, we know the landscape and can “speak the language”, adding another layer of support for you as you make your decisions.
4. Knowing the Negotiation and Budget expectations
Sometimes you know what your budget needs to be and sometimes there are so many pieces of the puzzle that it’s hard to know where to spend money and where to save it, for example…
Should I invest in staging?
How can I live in my house and show it at the same time?
How much should I invest in painting vs landscaping vs repairs?
And so many more…
We at OFab can work with your agent to help solve each of those questions. We are the perfect solution for those who want to invest wisely, as we’re an economical solution to many of the concerns you may have.
5. Knowing When to Walk / Knowing your limits
It’s happened to the best of us. After finding the perfect home, all of the following issues can happen. Therefore, open lines of communication with agents are critical. They are your sounding board for events such as…
You find the perfect house but keep getting outbid.
The seller of your perfect house continues to push back on reasonable asks (needed improvements post-inspection, etc).
You realize you’re dealing with shady sellers and/or their agents that have become an obstacle in the purchase process.
You’ve decided on a house, but still have doubts… (ie, “In my gut, something doesn’t feel right.")
Despite setbacks, your agent knows how to keep fresh eyes on the market and encourage you to continue looking, reminding you that your perfect house is out there - but the timing has to be right.
If you feel you need to walk, do it. Seller shadiness, pushback, negative gut reactions means the timing is not right.
But keep up hope because your perfect house is out there - you may just not have seen it yet.
Agents, Clients, Friends - the struggle is real, but don’t let it get you down.
There’s HELP…
OFab has got you, your agent and your family.
