Buyers: What Do You Really Want?

There is no perfect house! As simple as that observation would seem, I can't tell you how many buyers I meet who believe that if we look long enough and hard enough their perfect home is out there. I tell buyers, "Even if you find a great lot and build from scratch... it still will not be perfect." (See the three rules of building below.) To help the buyers realistically focus on their needs, we have a tool in our conference room that is made up of 16 wooden sticks. On each stick is written a question that every buyer has to consider. What price range? How many bedrooms? City lot or country acreage? Move in ready or fixer-upper? Mountain View's? Travel time to town? Price range? You get the idea. Our goal as your real estate broker will be to find you a house or lot with as many of your "sticks" as possible. From our experience we have found that if we are able to find you a 12, 13 or 14 stick home, the buyer is very satisfied and we have accomplished our task.

Since we know you'll have no interest in looking at an "8-stick house", there just isn't any point in us wasting your time or the seller's time, looking at homes that are simply not "keepers". If we have good listening skills and you've been accurate at giving us answers to the questions on the sticks, we can take the frustration out of the home selection process and actually make that part of the purchase process smooth and efficient.

Those who have built before, know the following axiom to be true. The three rules of building are: (1) It will cost you more than you figured; (2) It will take longer to build than you figured; and (3) When it is all done... it didn't come out just exactly like you figured it would. If all three of those statements archer, you didn't do so well. If only two were true, you did about average. If only one sure with some was true, you did very well indeed. If none of the above is sure about your quest to build the perfect house... you may want to consider becoming a builder.

Buying Durango real estate is certainly something that needs professional advice. The "sticks" method of determining a buyer's true needs has proved very successful for our Team over the years. We would be happy to sit down with you and do this very exercise. It will help you to focus on what is important and it helps us in trying to match up your needs with what properties are available.