There. I said it outloud. Or, wrote it outloud. i made it public - you know what I mean. But even though the expression is bantered around quite abit in the sales world (come on, I know you know it!), it definitely has different meanings depending on who is doing the talking. When trying to get my head around what the statement "All Buyers are Liars" means I did some online reading research and asked many people directly. There's a lot to be said out there. . .

 

 

Seems if you're selling cars, it imparts an understanding that buyers are less than truthful about the condition of their current vehicle, accident history etc. in trying to shake out a "good deal". In real estate it can mean a variety of things such as (but not limited to) not telling one agent that you are already working with a realtor or not having your prequalifying in place but saying that you have or guessing at how much house you can buy. Yep, we have all run into this at some point. The biggest "complaint" I have heard from some realtors though is that some buyers don't know what they want.

 

Hhhmmm. In my experience (and really this is my best litmus test) is that like most of us making a purchase, big or small, we can have an ideal in our mind of what we want that may not match our needs, goals, finances or even our understanding of what's out there. Recently, I have been working with a young couple looking for their first home. And while they stated upfront what they were looking for, whenever we looked at properties that should have met the criteria in everyway they were consistently dissatisfied. After several viewings, I reviewed all of the comments and concerns they made about the properties and created my own search for them.  In listening to their complaints and dismissals, we were able to find the "perfect starter" in the second home we looked at from the new search.

 

I don't think Buyers are liars. I think there will always be a few folks out there who want a certain experience and don't recognize the time/cost factor to another personn - like trying on wedding dresses, test driving cars they can't afford or spending hours in jewellry stores  . . Rather, I think the skill is in the listening. Sometimes, it's about what they don't want or providing altnerative options and ideas that they didn't know existed. That's part of my role as a real estate consultant.