Buyers are Liars - Or Not

An adage that always makes me cringe when I hear it from real estate agents is "Buyers are Liars".  My first reacion is that those buyers are my clients and their business is what helps me make a living.  So I definitely don't start out thinking negative things about them.

Second, I don't think that buyers intend to be liars.  I think they just don't always know what they really want until they actually start shopping for a home. 

I recently worked with an adorable couple who found me on the Internet.  They were newlyweds - they had only been married for two months - and they were just glowing.  (Remember that feeling? Ahhhh, yes!)  So freshly married and all smiles, they were ready to buy their first home.

They started out looking in the $300,000 price range.  They knew the neighborhood they wanted to be in which really helped. When we visited the first home, the wife said it was just too small, she wanted a separate dining room, and larger guest rooms, and it wouldn't do.  Uh oh.  Big wants, little price tag. 

We looked at many homes, several of which I thought would have been a good match, but they had very good reasons for them not being what they had in mind.  They were finally able to find a wonderful home that had, not a separate dining room but a very large open dining room that will accomodate a big table and lots of guests.  It had good sized 2nd and 3rd bedrooms.  It had a big kitchen, hardwood floors, a big deck, a view of trees, was in excellent condition, and in the zip code where they wanted to be.  The price?  (Drum roll . . . )  $405,000.

Now I don't for a second think of them as being liars.  They had an ideal price point, and an ideal home. They just had to find where those two ideals would meet.  This month they will be closing on a home that they can enjoy living in for many years to come.  And that is a better "deal" than out-growing a home in 5 years and having to move. 

A & Y, I wish you many years of happiness in your new home.  And that's the truth.