Back in the mid-Eighties, when our kids were very young and we lived in a 2-bedroom Brookyln Heights apartment, my husband and I started thinking about moving someplace where there was more space. I grew up in a Fifties-style suburb where there was no public transportation and no shops. Just tract housing. My husband, more reticent about a move, grew up in Manhattan, Central Park his "backyard." Neither of us wanted to live far from civilization. We started driving around New Jersey and, one day, found ourselves in a town called Montclair. I looked at him/he looked at me. This is it, our eyes agreed. Leafy, warm, villge-y, it spoke to us and was only 12 miles from New York City, with bus and train transportation.
We went under contract for our first home and then, out of fear, pulled out. It took us the better part of the next year to make our way back to househunting. The second time was the charm and we found a 100-year old house that needed everything. To us, that meant we were chosen to fix it up. That was at the top of the Eighties housing boom. Over the next several years, our house lost value while we put in a new bathroom, then a new kitchen. Through time, though, the market picked up and we ended up making a lovely profit.
I can't help but see myself in many of the young couples I meet. As a threesome, we and they work through their demons to a place where they can agree to disagree on aspects of houses they like and move toward a decision. In most cases, there's a leader and a follower; one confident, the other indecisive. Their differing personalities eventually coalesce into one vision and they make haste to own a home.
Occasionally, though, they don't. Recently, while showing houses, I bumped into former clients with whom I met nearly every Sunday morning for upwards of 2 years. Incredibly cheerful, often holding hands as if they were out on a date, they hardly ever made offers while looking for what obviously had to be the perfect house. From watching those reality shows on TV about buying, selling and design, they admired much of what they saw, but were rarely tempted. Something was always wrong with a house. Then, nearing our second house-hunting anniversary, they won a robust bidding war on a typically imperfect front-porch colonial in a prime location just a block from one of Montclair’s train stations.
The inspection pointed out the home’s typical flaws – asbestos, old electric and plumbing – and these buyers demanded, in what was then a ferocious seller’s market, tens of thousands of dollars in closing credits. Needless to say, the deal collapsed when the sellers wouldn’t budge and, upon my urging, these buyers took a vacation from their search and from me.
No hard feelings! Well, they’re back and I’m happy to report that they’re working with another real estate professional perhaps willing to give them the additional years of support they will need. To be sure, everybody has a different timetable. Some people decide quickly and never look back. Others wear themselves out chasing a dream of perfection and never make the decisions (compromises, too!) necessary to a successful move.
Most buyers fall into the middle range. They review the inventory over a course of weeks or possibly a few months and make the best decision they can for that time and place, with the funds they have available. When there is reticence to commit, a real estate professional can be an important educator, support system and hand-holder to get the process going and keep it going. But not always. Some people will never purchase; just as some will never sell. Their fears, complacency, lack of motivation get in the way.
Today, I followed up on a showing of one of my listings, an adorable, spacious, updated Craftsman home that, despite the deflating market, has been getting many return showings. A couple who saw the place for the third time yesterday, couldn't find anything wrong with the house. They told their agent they loved it; no other home compared. My careful sellers had turned on all the lights for maximum effect. Then, these buyers, searching desperately for a flaw, turned them all off and announced the home was too dark.
And that, dear readers, is real estate in action!
