{"id":2595,"date":"2008-02-14T10:55:57","date_gmt":"2008-02-14T17:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2595"},"modified":"2008-02-14T10:55:59","modified_gmt":"2008-02-14T17:55:59","slug":"choosing-second-best-could-get-you-the-best-possible-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2595\/choosing-second-best-could-get-you-the-best-possible-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing second-best could get you the best possible home"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic<\/i> (permanent link<\/a>):<\/p>\n

 
Choosing second-best could get you the best possible home<\/b><\/p>\n

Last week we talked about how, even with so many unsold properties, multiple buyers can somehow land simultaneously on the one property on the market that approaches perfection.<\/p>\n

This is perfectly natural human behavior, if you think about it. Who hasn’t thumped a melon? Who hasn’t reached into the back of the cooler for the fresher milk? Who buys the brown ground beef when there’s redder meat available. We were not just born to shop, we will perish if we don’t learn to shop wisely and well.<\/p>\n

It’s no different for houses. You have a certain amount of money available, and a certain selection available to you for that money. It’s completely natural that you would shop until you find the home that is far and away better than your other choices.<\/p>\n

And it’s perfectly natural that other buyers would come to the same evaluation of the available inventory. They wold have bought the same melon as you, except you got there first.<\/p>\n

But there’s still an important difference. A good melon is as good as it’s going to get, and a bad melon cannot get better. But a house can almost always be improved.<\/p>\n

Here’s a melon-improvement strategy for financially-savvy home shoppers.<\/p>\n

That home you fell in love with is almost certainly a production home — a tract home. Yes, it’s in great shape, and it’s staged to perfection. But guess what? There are three more almost exactly like it for sale on the same street. They’re not as clean, not as nicely-decorated, not as well-marketed — but that works to your advantage.<\/p>\n

The difference between your dream home and what looks to you like a bad melon is really just a matter of money. If you put that money into the bad melon, it will be as good or better than your dream home.<\/p>\n

So, rather than competing for the best house and paying top dollar, you can use it as leverage to get a lower price and seller concessions on a home that could be even Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link):  Choosing second-best could get you the best possible home Last week we talked about how, even with so many unsold properties, multiple buyers can somehow land simultaneously on the one property on the market that approaches perfection. This is perfectly natural human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16176,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16176\/inciting-a-media-revolution-oprah-meets-rodale-meets-breitbart-meets-facebook-meets-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":2595,"position":0},"title":"Inciting a media revolution: Oprah meets Rodale meets Breitbart meets Facebook — meets you.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't go to your church. I've taken to saying that when I run up against some testy quibble based in some arcane branch of human knowledge I care nothing about. I don't go to your church. I don't shop at your store. I don't trade in your currency. I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10291,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10291\/purposeful-living-is-living-for-real\/","url_meta":{"origin":2595,"position":1},"title":"Purposeful Living Is Living For Real","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"November 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Such a simple phrase, yet apparently so difficult to execute. Agreeing with myself on what my purposes are was at the same time a task easily accomplished, and reminiscent of a root canal. Once they're established, any goal flowing from them will almost always be accomplished. The importance of having\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3069,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3069\/what-would-it-look-like-if-home-buyers-actually-shopped-for-value-an-illustration-of-my-kind-of-internet-lead\/","url_meta":{"origin":2595,"position":2},"title":"What would it look like if home buyers actually shopped for value? An illustration of my kind of internet lead","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This came in over the transom, and I think it is a thing of beauty. The ludicrous notion that buyers don't pay for real estate representation induces too many buyers to be lax in choosing their Realtor. Everything we do is based on delivering value, so we do best with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2001,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2001\/25-most-influential-real-estate-bloggers-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":2595,"position":3},"title":"25 Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers: 2007","author":"Russell Shaw","date":"October 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone who's delving into real estate blogging who hasn't come across Greg Swann and the Bloodhound Blog hasn't dug far enough.","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blogging Cartoon","src":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/Blogging Cartoon.bmp","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1156\/databases-fall-short-of-needs-at-realtybots\/","url_meta":{"origin":2595,"position":4},"title":"Databases fall short of needs at realty.bots","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Databases fall short of needs at realty.bots Realogy, the giant, publicly traded conglomerate of big-name brokerages, recently announced a deal whereby it will feed all of its listings to realty.bots, Trulia.com and Google Base. That's a mouthful. First, what's a realty.bot?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1472,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1472\/mls-ad-crackdown-a-waste-of-time-expert-says\/","url_meta":{"origin":2595,"position":5},"title":"MLS ‘ad’ crackdown a waste of time, expert says","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link): MLS 'ad' crackdown a waste of time, expert says Here's an interesting conundrum: MLS rules forbid one broker from advertising another's listings without permission. The question is this: What is advertising? At first blush, you might say that advertising is paid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}