- The Sold Journeys: 1002 822 Seymour Street
- 1 Initial First Time Home Buyer Introductory Meeting
- 21 Months of Waiting
- 21 Follow Up Messages
- Covid-19 Delays
- 2 Days of Showing
- Eight Showings
- Zero Open Houses
- A First Time Home Buyer Lesson of Fire
- 4 Offers and Counter Offers
This is what it took to get our amazing first time home buyer into her new apartment ….. And we loved every minute of it! We’re a glutton for punishment I guess.
1 Initial First Time Home Buyer Meeting
Jay and I run a first time home buyer seminar monthly for anyone who wants to attend. This isn’t a selfless plug to our own seminar, but this particular buyer was unable to attend our planned time that month. So in order to still educate her on the process moving forward, we set up a date and time to get together for coffee and go through our first time home buyer information package
21 Months of Waiting
E.L was a student at the time, graduating at the end of 2019. We’d arranged to start our search then. Of course with Covid-19 hitting, when we were about to get going, we had to stop all over again, brutal haha. 21 months was the time it took from our initial meeting, all the way until E.L took possession of her awesome new home!
21 Follow Up Messages
For those who don’t know us, I think they would be shocked at our communication. We take a genuine interest in everyone we work with. We don’t want to be annoying of course, but we always make the effort to follow up, at least once, each and every month. It could be a Happy Birthday message, Merry Christmas, or a market update for example. We sent 21 of those initial message to E.L from start to finish. Of course there usually ends up as some back and forth between each message on top of that!
Covid-19 Delays
Unfortunately for everyone Covid-19 hit us right when we were about to start our search. Even worse for our client was her family were directly affected by the virus personally. We practically had our pre-approval in hand, dates set to look, criteria confirmed and shoes on, about to head out the door. Last minute we had to put the search back by 9 months before we could get going again.
2 Days Of Showings
2 Days Of Showings
Once again, we split our showings up over two days. Efficiency is key and when it’s your first time, it helps get into a groove and practice. Plus one showing here and there everyday can get to be a lot for first time home buyers. They forget which was which and it becomes easily confusing, so we like to keep it simple and efficient.
8 Showings
We looked at eight different properties in total. E.L was tossing it up between a few different areas, so we set up two or three showings in each one. This once again allowed her to experience the areas and home herself, and come to that decision on her own. We ended up in such a good spot in Downtown Vancouver, it’s awesome!
0 Open Houses
As Covid restrictions are still really affecting our open house ability as agents, we really had to lock down our timing during the week, especially as most of our showings were in the evenings. Open Houses make it a lot easier to view property all at once in a set time slot, usually 2-4PM. We set the showings up perfectly so we could go one to another without awkward delays in between!
A First Time Home Buyer Lesson of Fire
This really should be ‘THE’ lesson of fire. Typically first time buyers are just learning the process, so they do not have a grasp fully of how the market works, including the ups and downs. We actually viewed one unit in particular that E.L LOVED! She didn’t want to act too fast as it was our first day out looking at homes. Probably the second or third one she ever saw actually. So she delayed slightly, and by the time she was happy making an offer, the place was gone! We always tell our buyers this beforehand, first time or not, but it’s really one of those things you’ll only grasp properly if you’re actually in the market and it happens to you. Of course we advise against it at the time as well, but sometimes the only way to learn the lesson is to get burnt!
4 Offers and Counter Offers
We were super aggressive with this offer due to the market. We had a lot of inventory to pick from and it had been on the market for not overly long, but enough time to get some negotiation going. We did a lot of research into recent solds, other properties in the area and picked our perfect gameplan. It’s important to be aggressive, but not too aggressive that you scare people off, or they just think your offer is a joke. The plan actually worked out better than we were aiming for, we had a price set in mind to meet them at, and we were actually able to go beyond that and get a further discount. WIN!
This was actually a fantastic experience for a first time buyer. Having ups and downs gives you a real look at the market. It’s all good seeing a few properties, liking one and then buying it, but you don’t experience the full market. Most people will be in the market a few times in their life, if not more. So to see it early on and navigate through it is a great opportunity to learn the ropes from the get go. We’re so happy for you E.L. Congrats on the amazing new home! We can’t wait to come for dinner (Yes we are inviting ourselves!)
Thanks for joining us this week. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube!
Until next week,
Jay McInnes
T: 604.771.4606
jay@mcinnesmarketing.com
Ben Robinson
T: 604.353.8523
ben@mcinnesmarketing.com