For most home buyers, buying a property isn’t just about the house, it’s about the neighborhood. Making a decision about where they want to live is a crucial part of the home buying process. In addition to determining if they are going to buy a three bedroom, two bathroom rancher or a 4 bedroom, 2 bath two story, they also have to buy into the lifestyle. Are there parks near by? Playgrounds? Is there a church they can attend? Is the neighborhood safe? Do houses in the neighborhood hold their value?
These are all important questions your prospective buyers are probably searching for. As the neighborhood expert, you’ll be making sure your buyers understand the ins and outs of the neighborhood they select. Here are three ways to educate your buyers on the neighborhood (with a downloadable tip sheet to give to your homebuyers).
Drive them around
Get your buyers in your car and drive them around the community. We tend to take one entrance into a neighborhood, often the pretty one. Are there multiple entrance points? Most likely yes- make sure they see all access points. Show them the neighborhoods on different days, and at different times of the day. Sure backing up to the main street doesn’t sound noisy on a weekday at 10am, but what about at evening rush hour? Drive the surrounding community. Identify parks, shopping centers and other points of interest that your buyers might care about. Make sure your buyers have an opportunity to get a complete picture of the community.
Direct them to resources about neighborhood safety
What one buyer thinks is “safe” is very different from another. I remember when I first moved to San Francisco from Arizona, I thought the neighborhood was “seedy”. The locals considered it “posh”, but I had never lived in a big city before. Be it the local police station or Trulia’s Interactive Crime maps, make sure your buyers are armed with information to help them evaluate the neighborhood and determine what’s “safe” to them.
Give them the stats
Most homeowners will eventually move again. When they go to sell, you want them to call you. Many times we focus on comps for a particular house, but don’t forget about the overall neighborhood. Give them the stats to show how the neighborhood has performed over time relative to other nearby neighborhoods. Sure, it may have seen a dip in home values in recent years, but when we look at the last 20 years, how did it perform? Did it recover faster in the dips or get hit harder? Give your homebuyers a source of comparison. Perhaps it hasn’t performed well, but major revitalization of the area is about to get underway, giving them a larger potential upside. Homebuyers often work on emotion, but make sure to give them the hard numbers too.
Happy, educated buyers yield more client referrals. We’ve put together a handy tip sheet for your home buyers with 5 “need to knows”- download it and share it with them!
![Agent_Guide_Sold_Listings_239x319[2]](http://pro.truliablog.com/files/2012/05/Agent_Guide_Sold_Listings_239x3192.gif)
Legacy Comments
Great information, Ginger! I’ve downloaded the PDF and will use this in my seller & buyer presentations. Thanks much!
Ron Reed
I am relatively new to real estate, but not new to business and I rarely, if ever drive people around. They want to have control of the process and that is ok with me as long as I am there when they need me. With so many people relying on the internet for information and guidance I think a good agent helps them understand what they are reading and direct them in their search. While I think these questions are all great and should be part of any selling or buying process the actual time it takes to hand hold in today’s environment is better spent in other ways than driving around clients. IMHO and maybe this is a MA thing, but it was the same in TX last year when I was working in that state.
Unless a client has come in from out of state and has no clue about where neighborhoods are, I don’t drive my clients around to explore.
That’s part of the “information gathering” stage that I leave up to my clients to do. I will give them resources whereby they can gather more information, but until they are in a “decision making” stage, I am a lot less hands on.
For me, it just doesn’t make good business sense to spend that kind of time and gas with a client.
I agree. Both parties need to be responsible. Buyers need to understand they need to be approved, and give us the attention we need to really help them see homes when necessary. My problem is that it appears that some buyers just want to go out on a joy ride without even giving us brokers the information we need to get them into any neighborhood. What is their price point? Are they ready to buy? Do they need to sell first? We need to gather info as well to help them understand the process. Some people put the cart before the horse. I just want buyers and seller to give my time and experience some respect. Calling at the last minute to show houses to someone that just happens to be in front of a home. No pre approval, no idea if they can afford to buy it? Respect is all I ask for and I will move mountains for my clients.
Great advice
After being a Real Estate Broker for almost 32 years now, your article is informative and directly what I have continued to do today, especially when the area my office is located in, has everything and more to offer Buyers. I not only give buyers a tour to those not familiar with the area, but inform them of a 10 block long park within the community, the two top rated schools, the many types of variety stores that are convenient to get to, but the many community organizations that we have in the area.
the transportation is the cream on top of the cake. we have the ‘m’ train, 5 bus lines, and express buses to manhattan. Home values have held well and if you drive within the Community you will be impressed House after House with small ranches to Million dollar Mansions. I may sound favorable to this area, however this part of Queens, has really the most to offer than others. And if you want to drive to Manhattan, it is only 12 minutes approximately. Taxes on Properties here are quite affordable, and do not choke homeowners. The special area I am speaking about is
“MIDDLE VILLAGE’NEW YORK 11379. YOU CAN WALK TO STORES, AND SPEAK TO NEIGHBORS BY A FIRST NAME BASIS.
JIM TURANO/BROKER*DIVERSE REAL ESTATE(AUG.23,2011)
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the initial email blast that directs us to this column say “5 neighborhood need to knows”?
Am I missing something?
Hi Adrian!
3 tips are shared in the actual blog post. Please download the complete list of 5 tips at the bottom of the page.
I think the five need-to-know items are mentioned in the opening paragraph. “Are there parks near by? Playgrounds? Is there a church they can attend? Is the neighborhood safe? Do houses in the neighborhood hold their value?” Yes?
Very nice information Ginger.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Kind regards, Jo Anne
Good Info, I’m not sure I would have started with the content listed in #1 although I’m in agreement it should be included.
Enjoyed the article. Good information. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Ginger,
Nice article with good intentions, which is the heart of the Real Estate business. After all we are dealing with most people’s cherished object their home and something very linked to their dreams.
However, doesn’t Fair Housing state that an agent cannot talk about a neighborhood.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Good intentions is good business. But good intentions within the limits of the business is the best path to follow.
Lydia
Very good post. Agree with almost 100% In fact i wrote a blog that compliments this real well.
http://blog.house-guy.com/2011/03/25/buyers-must-read-just-kidding/
This very good stuff! We had a large company move into our area several years ago. To this day I have never lost a client to a neighboring community. One of our the other companies losses most of their buyers. Due to the fact they are just selling houses and not a lifestyle!
Hi Ginger, thanks for your article! Neighborhood is the factor the homeowner has little (if any) control over. Meeting neighbors is at the top of my suggestions to buyers, and checking the “vibe” at different times/days of the week.
I love seeing homes getting renovated, especially in North Oakland which is a very popular area right now. However, it is still mixed in terms of crime, and quality of schools. Homeowners need to feel comfortable with this.
Ginger,
Overall a nice article and looking forward to your next.
I believe the point is that buyers are not just buying a home, but a neighborhood.
The neighborhood can effect everything from the value of the property to the quality of life for residents living there. All buyers should be aware of these items before making their final buying decision. Just be sure to follow the Fair Housing Guidelines when doing so and be sure the information you provide is accurate. Misinformation can come back to “bite you” later.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by ‘entrance to a neighborhood.’ I live and sell in Minneapolis, a city built by Scandinavians, on a grid. There are no entrances per se – you can usually get to point A from point B on a number of different streets. We do like to point out the other homes on the block, however and do point out, while driving, the period of the homes built in any one area – “Here are the 1920s homes. There’s an Arts and Crafts and there’s a classic two-story. The next block has 1940s one-and-one-half story homes.” Etc.
I will never comment about the perceived or actual safety of any neighborhood. I won’t even direct anyone to a crime stats website. I don’t want the Department of Commerce to come looking for me. However, I explain that Commerce forbids me from answering certain questions and I do let folks know that they can check with the neighborhood police department it they are interested.
Good article, after 23 years in real estate this article remained me the time when I begging in Real Estate my broker was explained how important is to give all the information about the neighborhood to the buyer, not only because will help the buyer to make a decision but also they won’t forget you for the good service that you provided
It’s smart to buy neighborhood first, then find within it a house to buy.
Why is the Northeast still left out of the Crime Map?!
In Scottsdale AZ I work with many out of state buyers. Scottsdale is so large with so many master planned communities that people don’t realize you can go 50+ miles just showing them neighborhoods. I find myself driving them around more than I would like and then they don’t buy…now I make sure they are committed to doing more research on their own, and direct them to where they can get the information they need to make informed decisions,
Great post. I will be passing these tips to my buyers as well as the sellers. I’m a buy and hold investor in Charlotte, NC. I have a blog on real estate market news and information. http://wilsonrealestateinvestment.com