The Process

In car buying the process is usually: Product, Place, and Price.  Real estate is much more involved, and naturally much more expensive.

If a car is the product, a house would be property. So rather than product, place, price the process in real estate would be property, place price. However, there is a very important ‘p’ that needs to be added first – the ‘person’.  Here are just some of the ingredients that are essential to each step of the process.   

1. Person – likes, dislikes, pet peeves, preferences, needs or must haves vs wants and desires.

2. Property – The house itself, decorator or designer finishes, architectural firm and features, builder and team, home’s history, land and lot particulars – such as property setbacks or easements, dimensions, etc.

3. Place – location, flood zone, elevation, community, neighborhood. POA, HOA, CDD, MSBU, club membership, fees, dues, millage rate, taxes, assessments, just value, homestead, nearby or local conveniences, travel distance to schools, shopping, healthcare, banking, airports, etc.

4. Price

Notice price is last.  Although the asking price is often openly disclosed and acknowledged, a lot like a vehicle’s window sticker, there is no need to be overly concerned about the price if steps 1, 2 and 3 are incomplete, fail or do not meet the buyer’s needs or requirements. 

Although it is true that a deal can absolutely fall apart over the price unfortunately, often the deal was likely shaky at best if the buyer was either annoyed or somewhat put off by something in #1 (above) or was in fact never really sold on #2 or 3.