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What Is Your Agent Thinking?

February 13, 2009 | By Kelley Koehler | Filed Under Odds and Ends 

Got a blog topic request from a regular reader that starts:

I often wonder what’s going through a realtor’s mind when we look at a house.  I have a feeling that every trip, a realtor is having a silent conversation that ends up with a decision "yes, I’d buy this house" or "no, not in a million years". And there is no way, unless that realtor is my buyer’s agent, that I’m ever going to hear that silent monologue.

I usually try to keep quiet about my personal opinions when I show a home to my Buyer clients for several reasons.  Biggest of those is that ultimately, we’re not shopping for me so my opinion doesn’t really count.  If I see any red flags or issues or nice features, I’ll point them out, but otherwise, if I think the carpet is ugly or don’t like the floorplan, I tend to keep my mouth shut.

When I walk through a house, I’m looking for problems, I’m evaluating the house against what my clients have told me they want.  I’m looking for signs of hidden damage, past alterations, if there’s room for everything they’ve told me they must have, if it appears to fit their stated lifestyle or not, I’m looking down the street and peeking over the fences.  But ultimately, the final house choice they make is a question of their tastes, not mine.

As hokey as it sounds, I usually know within about 10 seconds if we’re in the house they’re going to buy – because of the emotional reaction from my client within those first 10 seconds or so.  I’ve gone out previewing, found a handful of suitable properties and thought I knew which one my clients would pick and been completely wrong.  But as soon as we’re out together and they walk into the one they’ll buy, I usually know.  In fact, I just went though my sales list for 2008 and for all but 3 of my buyers – my 3 most analytical clients – I knew when we walked into the right one.

And it’s not always the one I would have picked.  But it doesn’t really matter, because I’m not the one living there.

It’s easier to point out why a house is wrong than to point out why it is right.  Because ‘right’ is so very subjective and totally dependent on that specific household’s needs.

I think it would be an awesome blog series if every now and then you’d post your internal monologue as you went through a notable home (good or bad). It’s kind of like "House Hunters" lite. You almost do this now – every now and then you talk about really bad homes, but you never talk about the really good ones and why they were really good.

It’s an interesting idea though.  Thinking about how to apply that suggestion.

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