I’m Not an Order Taker! Do You Really Want One?

So you’ve decided it’s time to buy an Orange County home, and you’re trying to decide how to go about what is probably the largest purchase of your life.

Today it’s possible to do a lot of investigating about what houses are for sale and for what price in any particular area or city.

Maybe you’ve gotten to the point where you think maybe you need a professional to help you, but what kind of help do you really need?

Do you need an order taker? What do I mean by that? Do you need to tell someone that you need a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home with a yard big enough for a pool, you want to live in Irvine and you have been pre-approved for $750,000? Will that person then turn around and give you a list of the homes that meet that criteria and then ask you which one you want to make an offer on?

Is this really what you need?

It occurred to me that buyers might not realize that it is important that your Realtor not be just an order taker when I sat down with new clients the other day.

As we talked about their desire to purchase a new home, I asked them several thought provoking questions about what was important about buying a home and making sure that I really understood what they are trying to accomplish. This goes way beyond the criteria for the home such as bedrooms and square footage.

Once we completed the discussion, one of my clients commented that this was very different from what he expected. He expected me to be an order taker. He expected that we would just look at the homes in their price range. However, he said that he really appreciated my way of doing things as it helps both of us to really understand what he wants and why he is buying a home.

And, yes, part of his “homework” is to complete a list of what he does and doesn’t want in a home, but to me, that is not all we need to talk about when buying a home.

Certainly, anybody can be an order taker, but do you really want one for the largest purchase of your life? Or, do you want somebody who is going to really understand what is important about buying a home to you and who can help you pilot your way through the myriad of details that go into buying your home?