A few weeks ago, my roommate and I decided to wander into uncharted territory. As a couple of 20 somethings lacking the will or the means to buy a house, we decided to visit some open houses in our neighborhood. The experience was nothing more than eye opening.
First, it was amazing to see the reactions of real estate agents as we approached the house. Some judged our jeans-and-t-shirts appearance and never considered us serious buyers. They spent all their time with other visitors and just waived us through. Other agents actively approached us and started handing us loads of paper with facts and figures on this house its comps. Some even began to engage us in conversations, something for which we were unprepared. So we had to think on the fly and come up with answers not to let our guard down.
Where are you in the process? Just starting...
Have you looked at any other properties? We just came from the open house on Poinsettia around the corner....
Do you live in the neighborhood? Yes, we live just a block over and saw the sign so we thought we'd come by.
Then, I got into the act.
I really like the architecture of this house. We currently live in a Spanish-style house that has great exposed beams. I really like the rounding of the ceiling in the living room here.
And when we were exploring the houses, we began making up stories about what we liked about the houses. Oh, look, a mini-fridge in the master bedroom, we should get one of those for our house. Or, do you think this storage area is large enough for your tampon collection? And then we practiced asking annoying questions to the real estate agents: Which bedroom is the master bedroom in this house (it was not clear)?
So in the end, the open house expedition taught us how to build on each other's comments, never shoot your partner down, and to take risks on the spot.
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