I heard these words come out of a buyer’s mouth the other day, “I have looked at over 100 homes and still have not found my perfect home.” I cringed when I heard that sentence and thought to myself, “If she has looked at 100 homes and still has not found her perfect home, chances are, she’s not going to find it.” Then I thanked my lucky stars that I was not her real estate agent.Listen, no one needs or should be looking at 100 homes to find the perfect home and here are the whys:* 1) The perfect home doesn’t exist. There is no such thing and even people who built their own homes from start to finish will admit that after they are done, they would have and should have made more changes.
* 2) If you have looked at 100 homes and still have not found a home that suits you, then anyone of the following three things could going on here:
* a. The home you are looking for is not on the market or does not exist.
* b. Your criteria are too stringent. That’s a nice way of saying that you’re being too picky.
* c. The real estate agent has not done a good job at listening to your wants and needs and has not shown you the properties that meet those criteria.
In reality, if you have a good real estate agent that has done his or her job, you are being realistic about what you can buy for the money, and you use the 85 percent rule, then you should be able to find a terrific home that meets your wants and needs in 12 to 20 showings. By the way, the 85 percent rules says that if you find a home that meets 85 percent of everything you want, then buy it because you have done well in your house hunting.
Finally, looking at 100 homes will just make you numb to the whole process, you’ll become paralyzed by over analysis and in the end, you’ll find it very difficult to pull the trigger and buy anything at all. Remember, buying a home is supposed to be fun. It’s not an exercise in analytics or running a marathon.
