Buyers are searching all over the internet for the right home for them. It’s a great place to start, but a terrible place to make any actual decisions. It is ironic that “real” estate has been taken over by the virtual world.
Here’s the thing, a picture of a house is not a house. Just as it’s mildly ridiculous when someone isn’t interested in a house because it is, say, yellow, it should be equally ridiculous to rule out a property because the pictures aren’t flattering or there aren’t pictures of the things in the house that are specifically important to you.
Worse still is the continuing emergence of immersive technologies that allow you to virtually experience a home through the use of 3D floor plans, virtual walk-throughs and more recently entirely customizable experiences where the home can be imagined with different floor coverings, furniture and paint colours. All designed to provide a virtual experience of the home in order to substitute actually seeing it in person.
In-person experience allows proper assessment
But just as a picture of a house is not a house, a virtual representation of a house in just that, a virtual representation of something that is very real and will be very different when experienced in real life.
A house is a living, breathing, feeling place that must be experienced in order to be properly evaluated. To rule out something that may suit your needs on the basis of a virtual examination will always make the buying process that much poorer.
Of course you’ll see some real duds if you take the time to get off the couch and into some homes that are marginal online, but if you don’t you’ll never find that surprisingly open floor plan or that cool quirky top floor space that the kids will love or the amazing secret garden that simply did not photograph well.
So, what’s stopping you?
So why aren’t you looking? Too much time? This is likely the most expensive purchase you’ll ever make, so put some effort into it!
Don’t want to take up your agent’s time? That’s what we get paid to do and if your agent doesn’t want to invest their time into finding you the right home then get one who will.
The internet is useful in creating long lists, or even medium lists for property selection, but don’t deprive yourself the opportunity of finding that perfect diamond of a home because the listing agent used his phone to take pictures of the house. Get out there and dig around, look at lots of houses and do it in person.
Also, don’t rule out the yellow house – paint is cheap!
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Ready to start the search for your perfect home? David Langlois and Niels Madsen will help you find it. And if you’re ready to sell, know that they DO care about showing your home to its best advantage!