Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day, as real estate agents the world over play matchmaker.
The objective of a matchmaker in romantic love is to bring compatible individuals together as a couple.
Buyers similarly come to agents with a list of needs and desires they wish for in a home. First, the matchmaker seeks to understand the personalities of each individual, whether it be a romantic partner or a home in this illustration.
‘Look through your book’
When I think of a matchmaker, I invariably hum the tune to the song “Matchmaker” from Fiddler on the Roof:
“Matchmaker, matchmaker
Make me a match
Find me a find
Catch me a catch
Matchmaker, matchmaker
Look through your book
And make me a perfect match”
An ideal match is one with both compatibility and spark — but that something special that can be difficult to quantify and qualify. Each party comes to the decision differently.
The agent’s role, as in the song, “looks through the book.” The dedicated agent possesses intimate knowledge of the area, what’s currently on the market and even those homes that could be a match yet are not currently active.
It’s often more “art” than science, like putting together the pieces of a puzzle, without having the virtue of the box to know what the final outcome will look like.
The 3 ‘S’ qualities
There is a young man from our church whose friends have been trying to find a “match” for.
We asked him what he was looking for in a lady, and he said that he would like someone with these three “s” qualities: sexy, smart and sweet.
Sexy, as there has to be a physical attraction; smart, as he wants a partner that is an intellectual equal; sweet, in that he would enjoy her company.
The same qualities have correlations in real estate matchmaking.
To be sexy means the home has a “wow” factor to the buyer; a spark ignites when the buyer enters the property.
To be smart means that the home is a good investment, that comparables support the value, and that the condition of the property is evaluated and appropriate remedies are negotiated.
And to be sweet means that the house isn’t just a building, but it feels like home.
The best agents see the twinkle in their buyer’s eyes upon entering a home.
In the years I have spent matching buyers with homes, I’ve discovered that finding the right home is truly much like falling in love.
Karen Briscoe is the author of Real Estate Success in 5 Minutes a Day: Secrets of a Top Agent Revealed, a top-seller on Amazon Books. She is the principal of HBC Group at Keller Williams located in Northern Virginia.