When you are buying or selling a house, as with all other aspects of life, pay attention to the signs. The “For Sale” signs for sure, but the more subtle and innocuous signs more specifically. If you see something, hear something or feel something that sends you a positive (or negative) vibe during your transaction, pay attention.
If you see a tree in the front yard that’s the same size and variety as one in the front yard of your childhood home, where you spent many a summer’s day playing in the tire swing your Uncle Bob hung one Fourth of July, that’s a good sign.
If, on the other hand, that’s the tree your kitten Tiger fell to her death from, that could be a sign, too. You may want to pass on that house and move on with your tour.
If you notice a kitchen has the same appliances as the house you grew up in, you may see that as a sign you’ve come home again and submit an offer post haste. Unless there was a short in the oven that sparked the fire that burned your childhood home down, then just move on to the next option.
If you notice a framed poster of a famous painting you had thumbtacked to the wall of your first apartment, that may be a sign this was meant to be your home. If the framed print is of a vampire with blood dripping off of his fangs, you might want to reflect on your mental state at that point in your life and check your other options.
If you smell freshly baked cookies, homemade bread or a familiar perfume when you first enter a house, pay attention to the emotions those fragrances bring up and act accordingly.
Sellers need to read the signs, too.
If the buyers’ offer is demanding, incomplete, missing a pre-approval letter, with no proof of funds for the down payment and closing costs and is delivered with the pages scanned out of order and upside down, this may be a sign that you should wait for the next offer.
There are signs around you all of the time. Some make you happy, optimistic, hopeful and secure. Others make you feel fearful, skeptical, apprehensive or downright afraid.
So, don’t just pay attention to a home’s features, finishings and financials. Be like the Kung-Fu master coaching young Grasshopper. Take in all the other signs around at every point in the process. These may lead you to a wonderful outcome, or they may help you steer clear of a train wreck, a money pit, or worse, perhaps a haunted house.
Leslie Sargent Eskildsen is an agent with RealtyOne Group West and a board member at the California Association of Realtors. She can be reached at 949-678-3373 or leslie@leslieeskildsen.com.
Source: Orange County Register
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