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!

As a home buyer, having meaningful real estate conversation with people important to you should come first. Doing so will allow you to uncover the characteristics of your perfect home. This boils down to sharing stories and meaningful moments that bring what’s possible to the surface while allowing other’s to connect in a positive way.

After meaningful real estate conversations have occurred and everyone has shared what they value, it’s time to rapidly find out what’s possible. From this space, you can begin to synthesize what your perfect home looks like. Are you ready?

The Perfect Home Exercise

You will need the following items for this activity. Prepare these beforehand so you can easily transition from sharing stories to mind-mapping traits of what a perfect home looks like.

1. Multi-color 3×3 post-it notes.
2. Multi-color sharpie markers.
3. Large 30×25 post-it flip chart.
4. Smartphone with a timer.

Set up this exercise with a question or two. Write it at the top of the large post-in flip chart in big letters for everyone to see:

“What makes this the perfect home today

and why do I absolutely love it?”

Place the post-it flip chart on the wall or a table with everyone circled around, then provide everyone with a stack of 3×3 post-it notes and sharpie. Take a moment to explain how important it is for the group to use divergent thinking when creating ideas. Meaning, you will generate as many ideas and potential solutions from a single piece of information (or question).

This exercise is less about thinking and more about brainstorming. Divergent thinking is a significant factor in creative thinking that has built disruptive brands like Airbnb and Uber.

Rapid Fire Housing Characteristics

When everyone is ready, set 3 minutes on your smartphone timer. Repeat the perfect home question one last time and say, “3… 2… 1… GO!”

As the timer runs, each person must write as many ideas as they can on a post-it note. This includes yourself! While placing notes on the flip chart, encourage the group to keep going and offer positive thought joggers to maintain momentum.

Once the timer expires, ask everyone to wrap up their final thoughts. It’s okay to extend the time another 1-2 minutes if the ideas continue to flow. Totally up to you!

Once all the ideas emerge, have everyone work together to build columns for each theme and place them vertically making every idea visible. You can place unrelated thoughts or ideas to the side. However, just because an idea doesn’t carry collective weight, it doesn’t mean it’s bad!

With all the themes in front of the group, thank everyone for taking the time to share their best ideas. Afterwards, begin to enroll everyone into what’s possible by sharing what your perfect home might look like based on the ideas that emerged.

As a real estate agent, I cannot stress how important it is to have people in your life helping you seek out real estate opportunities in finding the right property. This process gathers help from those closest to you and casts a wider net to find your perfect home.

The Must Have List

Because these are the characteristics of your perfect home, it’s best that you create the Must Have List on your own or with the person you’re purchasing with. Use the collective insights you’ve gathered up until now and circle your Top 3 themes that came up during the Perfect Home Exercise.

This Top 3 Must Have List acts as your guiding principles for your home search and crowdsourcing everyone’s wisdom creates a massive amount of clarity for you in a short period of time. 

 

Next week…

We’ll create your Top 3 Must Have List and begin to test the characteristics of your perfect home by choosing which homes look at.

See you next week!