How I Work with Buyers

I’m a great believer in following a process, most especially when that process has proved successful time and time again.

The process I’ll follow with you is so successful that we may very well find the right home or land on the first day you look.

I’ll also want to make sure you don’t overpay, but I’ll come to that later.

I call this: The Funnel Process.  Here’s what it looks like:

I want to make sure we don’t overlook any home or land tract that may work for you.  Picking random houses or land here and there to look at isn’t efficient and may overlook the right one.  Instead, we’ll follow a process of elimination.

Step One: We’ll put everything into the funnel:

• all homes and land in the MLS
• foreclosures
• For Sale by Owners
• and certainly, as well, any homes or land you’ve run across that look enticing

Step Two: We’ll narrow down from all possibilities, screening out homes or land that can’t possibly work for you, due to location, size, age: whatever is important to you. By using this process of elimination, we’ll be sure you won’t miss out on the right home or land.

Step Three: We’ll select from the homes or land that, by elimination, fell out of the bottom of the funnel.  These are the most likely candidates to provide you the happy environment you’re looking for.

When you’re in the area, we’ll tour these homes and land. When we’ve looked at one that isn’t right for you, you’ll discover my secret for getting rid of the thoughts and memories of that one:  I wad up the information sheet and toss it in the way-back of the car!

We’ll keep a rolling top three in hand throughout the time we’re viewing homes, continually wadding up and tossing the homes and land that don’t make the cut.

Through The Funnel Process, like many other of my buyers, you may find your dream home or land the first day we look! This efficiency saves you time and helps your dream quickly become a reality.

When you’ve settled on the best home or land for you, I’ll help make sure you don’t offer too high a price.  I’ll run a market analysis of similar sold homes or land, allowing you to get a firm handle on the market value of the home.

We’ll also talk about other terms in an Offer to Purchase that will be important considerations for you, and for the seller:  how much earnest money you’ll put down, when you want to close, what will transfer with the home (furniture? fuel in the tank? the riding lawn mower?), the terms of your loan (if you’re getting a loan), and what length of time you’d like to have to investigate any questions you have about the home (we call this ‘The Due Diligence Period.’)  Sometimes there are other considerations, as well. If land, does it have a septic permit or do you need to go through that process? Is the survey adequate?

If you live elsewhere and will only be in town a day or a couple days, we likely won’t have time to sit down and go through The Funnel Process when you’ve already arrived.  We’ll want to do that before you get here.

I’ll be asking you a lot of questions.  We can do that on the phone, through email, and/or through postal mail.

To find the right or land for you we’ll need to eliminate almost all the 2000 or so homes or 2000 or so land tracts currently on the market in our area that go into the top of The Funnel.  I’ve found two highly effective ways to do this, that is, to narrow what falls out of The Funnel.

One means is for you to complete the Confidential Buyers Profile. That’s a very long document, but buyers tell me that it helps them clarify their own thoughts — including some things they hadn’t yet thought about – on what home or land will work best for them in the High Country.

My second method I wistfully call the ’10 Lines that Leap to Clarity.’  It’s a quick, easy, fun game and I look forward to sharing it with you.

Either way, once completed, I’ll be able to find the best Top Three homes falling out of The Funnel.  This process, as I’ve already mentioned, is so effective that I’ve often steered buyers to their best home or land choice on the first day looking at homes.  This efficiency saves your time and helps your dream quickly become a reality

I’ve prepared more information that you may find helpful.  I’ve found that buyers who are new to living in the High Country often have questions about how living here is different from what they know well at home.   Among other information, you’ll find:

• What about winter access?
• How can I begin to think about where in location in the High Country?
• Will I find any homes with flat yards?
• What about a mountain view?
• What do I need to know about purchasing a home to put in a vacation rental program?

To help answer those questions, I’ve created a Home Buyers Guide to Purchasing Property in the North Carolina Mountains.