Did You Forget What's Most Important?

I think almost 100% of real estate agents are missing the boat on this because for 20 years we have been able to sell our clients, our buyers and sellers looking to then also buy again on a logical basis. Interest rates were so low. It made so much logical sense to invest in a home. We were selling them on a logical line of thinking, so to speak.

But right now, the interest rates have gone way up and we are still so stuck in the cycle of talking about interest rates, and that's really not something that is appealing to the buyer anymore, or to the seller who also then has to buy. It is not a benefit when the interest rates are as high as they are. We have forgotten the actual reason that people ultimately want to buy. 

People will buy a home based on emotion and they justify it with logic. Let me say that again: they buy a home emotionally, and they justify it with logic. I think real estate agents should be doing a better job communicating with our clients surrounding this. Our speech patterns would lead you to believe that we only see real estate investment as a purely financial gain. But the truth is, the investment in the environment that is best for you and your family, that is arguably even more important. A home is not just a financial investment, it is an investment on the environment for your family because your home is one of the most critical decisions that you are ever going to make ... it is where you live. 

Currently, we live in a crazy world. We have uncertainty everywhere we look, it seems, like the threat of war, inflation, global warming, disease ... all this noise!  And your home is the one place that you have control over. It is the single biggest impact on things like your health, your future income, and your family's future success. This has been studied repeatedly. Social economists recently studied success defined by monetary and education status and found that the location of your home is actually the single most significant predictor of success. 

We should be educating our clients and selling homes this way. Folks are predisposed to wanting to buy a home emotionally and then they will justify it with logic. They lead with emotion on the buying process. So we need to be talking to them about the emotional benefits of buying the home. That is how they are predisposed to think about this process anyway.

We should be talking about getting into better schools, getting a better job, getting better recreational facilities and parks, better healthcare, safer, cleaner, healthier areas, surrounded by more positive influences. Somebody could sell their home because the next home can improve the quality of their life in all of these ways that we are talking about. They can get a better floor plan. They can have less maintenance. They can have more privacy and advanced features in the home. They can be closer to family and friends. They can have the pool, the yard, the fence, one level, and a super spacious home. Whatever it is ... sell it on the emotional level, not on the logical level.

This is a total pattern interrupt for agents that we have not had to make in a long, long time. For many of us, never in the entire time we have been in the industry! We need to talk less about it being a good time to buy or sell, and more about it being a good time to improve the quality of your life. There is no bigger return for anybody than improving quality of life.

That is really what this is about. We got into the industry to help people improve their quality of life, by improving the home where they live. They have more space if they need it. They have less space once the family has grown up and moved out, whatever the case may be. But we got into the industry to help people and I think we are losing sight of that. We are so stuck on this numbers game and the LOGIC behind buying a home that we have lost sight of the EMOTIONAL hook behind owning the right home. That is probably more important to most folks than even the financial investment. People want to be happy. We need to be focusing more on that.  Special shout out to Jon Cheplak for the reminder!