Up until now, you have had meaningful real estate conversations with family, friends, and those closest to you. You’ve been able to create a powerful “Must Have List” to test against the real estate market. Then, after comparing several homes for sale you drive up to the next one, check it out, and realize this house is “The One”.

How Will I know?

As we have covered before, knowing what you want before you go out to look for it is critical. We do this by reflecting on past real estate experiences such as buying, selling, or renting houses to discover what the perfect home looks like to you and why. This creates clarity and the confidence to make an offer. Now all you have to do is go for it! …or keep singing Whitney Houston until the right one shows up 😉

Top 3 Must Have List

Developing your “Must Have List” early in the process allowed you to confirm your #1 deal breaker during each property tour while testing the top 2 and 3 housing characteristics you’ve created during the Perfect Home Exercise. Now you know exactly what you’re looking for and have discovered what’s most important to you and why.

Creating that clarity allowed your home search to unfold as a purposeful real estate mission driving toward the results you truly desire vs. seeing something that just might work. Following this process gives you the confidence to know when you see “The One”. 💯

Have Meaningful Conversation

Share what you see and feel with me during the home tour. Let’s talk about your “Must Have List” and get it on the court with an open discussion about why this house is “The One” and how it fits your vision. Talking about this house should be exciting since it’s a reflection of what you love about real estate.

Don’t let the conversation stop here. Discuss why you’re excited to live in this home with the people closest to you and get feedback from those who share similar values when it comes to what a perfect home looks like.

Finding “The One”

When we walk into the house that’s “The One”, you will just feel it. You and I will talk about it to really make sure that it is the perfect home for you. Does it reflect the vision that you have? Does it really resonate with you and you just can’t stop thinking about it? If you let this house go, would you regret it? We’ll get to the bottom of why this is the house that you want to make offer on. And in real estate, it is important to be 100% sure because it really is a big investment!

Reflect and Choose

The power of the Perfect Home Process is being able to reflect on what you love the most about your past real estate experiences and connecting those positive experiences to discover what your perfect home looks like today. It’s simply a reflection of who you are, right?

Converse and confirm that this is what you want to move forward on. You need to be able to say, “Yes, this is it! This is what I truly want. This is ‘The One’!”

Now that you have created that for yourself, it’s time to decide. If you absolutely love it… go for it! Make an offer and turn your vision into a reality.

Next Week…

You are clear on what you want, it’s time to create an offer strategy that wins. Making an offer is more than price and terms. Next week, I will share what goes into a successful offer strategy and how to push the right hot buttons to win. Thanks for tuning in and see you next week!

I enjoy building rapport that’s why I love connecting with my clients. Getting to know them has become my biggest strength. Thus, as your real estate agent, the greatest value I can give is to understand what you’re looking for and help you find that perfect home. It all starts with a meaningful conversation.

Usually, I begin by asking questions about experiences in buying, selling, or renting real estate. Even the time where you might have lived or traveled somewhere new is an apt place to start. This allows me to understand who you are at your core and what are the sources of your motivation. We can now see how collectively, we can create a result that’s aligned with that.

To show what this looks like, I’ll use a real-life example discussed last week. This is an inside look at how a 1-hour conversation reveals the characteristics of a perfect home. It will also help you understand the value I deliver as a real estate agent – all before you hire me.

Our Meaningful Real Estate Conversation

Just like any other relationships, it’s important to get to know each other. It’s kind of pointless to share all my past accomplishments and years of experience without taking the time to also know you. Imagine going on a date and the person talked for the first 20 minutes just sharing every highlight of their life, convincing you with reasons why you should date them. It would be a TOTAL DISASTER, right?

At the end of the day, choosing to work with a real estate agent happens when you’re comfortable and confident in that person’s abilities to understand your true desires. That relationship is created through a meaningful conversation.

I appreciate meeting with potential clients who have already had meaningful real estate conversations with family, friends, or a significant other. After tapping into the knowledge of those closest to and influential in their lives, they’re able to have a clearer understanding of what resonates with them. Thus, they’ve come prepared to uncover what is possible.

For example…

Below are the notes from an actual meeting with a buyer about the things that she loved from her previous homes. We completed the Perfect Home Exercise then I was able to highlight the key points that make a real estate property perfect for her. With all these information, we were able to create her Top 3 Must Have List that guided our whole home search process.

Notice how conversationally I discovered the most important things about her real estate experiences and what truly resonates with her. You can learn by doing this on your own but I also want to invite you to do it with me. This is something I take a lot of pride in and I’d really appreciate the opportunity to do this with you!

The Perfect Home Exercise

After creating the space and talking about your real estate experiences, it’s time to do the Perfect Home Exercise. Completing the activity with me will help you decide if you should work with me going forward. But if you have done this on your own, it’s OK too!

Doing this exercise together helps you understand what ideas and thoughts inspire me. This allows us to create the characteristics of your next home. Most importantly, it will help you as the buyer to decide if the vision I want to bring to the table is the right fit for you before hiring me as your real estate agent.

As discussed in the previous example, you can see the ideas that emerged within 4 minutes of doing a mind-map together. Those written on the green post-it notes were the buyer’s and the yellow ones were mine. Observing it, we were able to derive patterns and themes.

Top 3 Must-Have List

After discussing the patterns and themes that surfaced, we’ve picked our top 3 and created a Home Must Have List. This became our guiding principle as we began to choose which real properties to look at.

1. Downtown Denver Location near local drivers (Deal Breaker)
2. Open Floorplan with “Everything” & a Modern Layout
3. Newer Interior Updates and Level of Finish

Choosing Homes for Sale & Testing Outcomes

Going into this, we knew the property specs had to be 1-2 bedrooms, 1-2 bath condo, and less than $325,000. We determined any type of parking was acceptable and the unit needed to have washer and dryer hookups. To keep things within an initial budget, the HOA was capped at $250/month. All driven by location.

These property specs, coupled with the Top 3 Must Have List, gave us several possibilities from the Highland to Capitol Hill and City Park. It was now time to test the relationship between beds/baths/price and location while only touring real properties in popular neighborhoods. As we walked into each unit, we were testing the #2 and #3 on her list if it fits what she was looking for.

New Characteristics that Emerged

While touring properties, a modern layout and open floorplan were still number 2. However, the level of finishes was still unclear. I wasn’t sure if she wanted the best of the best or up to what extent she was willing to go down to. We walked into a real estate property which had no laundry at all but had top-of-the-line finishes. There she realized that she needs a laundry room and didn’t need too much of the finishes. So she was willing to go down a little bit just to have that space for laundry. The look and style of mid-2000’s gave her what she wanted today, and also the opportunity to do her own updates long term.

One of the most important things that surfaced was the importance of keeping her monthly payment low. That conversation allowed us to focus on a certain price point especially since 2 beds/2 baths and 2 beds/1 bath options were all at the top of her price point and in locations that didn’t speak to her. The bottom line is, location was not going to be sacrificed for property specs.

These real insights help you see the relationship between property specs and location while also showing the importance of a powerful Must Have List to create purpose and clarity in your home search.

Are You Ready to Look?

So you’ve been looking online and thinking about buying… This is perfect, let’s connect! I love it when buyers do their homework and have a range of possibilities when we meet. Text, email, or call and let’s schedule our first appointment.

Up Next…

Are you all about the process? Over the next month, I’ll share what to do once we find the perfect home. Covering the real estate home buying process from making an offers all the way to closing. See you next week!