After You Read the Listings, Your Agent Reads You

Even when buyers think they are wearing poker faces, experienced real estate agents can read their expressions and signals, learn more about them, and use this knowledge of consumer behavior to steer them toward or away from a sale. Some say buyers who linger in a particular room have found something especially interesting to them, while those who rush through a property are not interested at all. Agents use these signals to gauge what buyers really want but do not know they want. “The ability to know those other options is the value that an agent brings,” says Fritzi Barbour of Greenville, S.C.-based Coldwell Banker Caine. “You may think you want X, but if you’re shown Y, you may love Y better than you ever loved X.” Many brokers show their recommended properties at the beginning and end of the day’s schedule, with the first property serving as a mental benchmark and the last being the easiest to recall. However, agents say they are not manipulating buyers — who are more thoughtful in today’s market and will not buy a home that does not meet their needs — but trying to find them homes they will like that are good investments in the hopes of getting their business when they resell down the road. | Read More