No Good Surprises
Having now been involved in nearly 20,000 real estate
transactions, it has come to my attention that there are
no good surprises in real estate.
Surprisingly enough, not once has a buyer ever called
the office to say that, to their great and happy surprise,
the home has more bedrooms than what was told to
them by their agent!
Not once has a buyer called with delight to share that
while mowing the lawn for the first time they discovered
a crystal clear swimming pool!And not even once has someone called to announce
that upon the first opening of the garage, low and be-
hold, a free Ferrari!
Nope, wish as we will, surprises in real estate are al-
ways bad.
Back to those 20,000 deals. Having observed and
pondered at length who is happy and who is sad, I have
come to the conclusion that people are happy when
things turn out as well or better than expected; not nec-
essarily that they turned out well! People simply hate
surprises in real estate.
Since it is true that people hate surprises in real es-
tate, then each person involved in the real estate trans-
action should be given clear specifications of how to
avoid surprises!
The first goal of buyers and sellers should be to bring
to bear all information about the transaction. Another
goal of buyers and sellers should be to involve those pro-
fessionals along the path of the transaction that will aid
in keeping surprise at bay.The goal of each professional
participating along the way should be to educate buyers
and sellers to minimize the surprise in each and every
facet of the transaction.
Since houses come in many shapes, sizes, ages, and
price ranges, how are we to remove the surprise element?
And, by the way, buyers and sellers come in even more
varieties than houses! What IS a professional to do?
