On the other hand, my wife has more friends than Jay Zee has benjamins, although her definition of friend is very broad.
It's important in her business to be as friendly as possible with as many people as possible. That's one of the keys to her 20 years of success in the real estate profession. Buyers and sellers want to associate with people they like and trust. The days of the slick real estate or used car sales associate are fading as more emphasis is placed on the importance of creating and maintaining relationships.
So, it's not surprising that it seems more women than men work in the real estate profession. It's the same in Public Relations. I'm also seeing more women in car showrooms, too. I know it's a cliche, but women are often seen as more nurturing; more in tune with people's feelings and emotions. Even more trustworthy.
Completing the transaction used to be king. Now maintaining the connection is just as important. Information about customers that was once kept on a spread sheet for possible future reference is now housed in elaborate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
Did you get a card from your realtor congratulating you on the first anniversary of your home purchase? That's no coincidence. It's part of an ongoing effort to maintain a relationship with you in the hopes that you'll also buy your next home from that person or recommend him/her to a friend.
There are few things that can be caught up in more emotion than buying a home. It's a big decision to commit yourself to borrowing and then paying back hundreds of thousand of dollars. When buying their first home, it's not unusual for young people to have well meaning relatives, family, and friends whispering in their ears that they're not ready; that they should save more money.
There have already been a few times in my short career in real estate that I've seen parents -- usually Dad -- sabotage the purchase of a home that a young couple loves because the roof or furnace needs to be replaced and "they don't have the money."
I'll never forget one Dad who got out of his car, looked at the roof, and declared that a new one was needed. He got back in the car and never saw the rest of the house, which his daughter and son in law fell in love with. They never came back to see it again or make an offer.
When the house was sold just a few days later to another young couple, the home inspector said that the roof was good for at least another 10 years. When I told him about the Dad, who declared that it needed to be replaced, he smiled and said "He was probably an accountant, who just didn't want them to buy a house. Obviously, he didn't know a thing about roofs."
If we're honest with ourselves, there's never a "good" time to make a major purchase like buying a home or our first new -- not previously owned -- car.
Interestingly, the reasons for purchasing homes are changing. The chart below shows an increasing number of people buying to accommodate several generations.
Of those buyers, 26% indicated they will be taking care of an aging parent, and 14% said that they wanted to spend time with an aging parent. These numbers do not come as a surprise. According to the Pew Research Center, 64 million Americans (that's 20% of the population) lived in a multi-generational household in 2016.
So, it's too bad Dad sabotaged that sale. He really would have liked living in the house...
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