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Buyer Tips
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You will probably meet the owners on one of your
visits. As all of you stand around feeling awkward, watch carefully
for non-verbal communication among home owning family members. Did
Daughter blush when Dad said the tap water was fit to drink? The
owners may offer coffee or a soda, but watch out if you're offered
alcoholic beverages. They could be trying to blunt your powers of
observation and resolve. Beer, wine and sherry, of course, do not
count as alcoholic beverages.
Be as charming as you can when you meet the owners. Remember, your
goal is to make them divulge the worst secrets of the house and then
let you have it for a fraction of what it's worth just because they
like you so much. Failing this, you want to undermine their confidence
in the value of their home. Do this by pointing out obscure problems
in the form of compliments.
Example: "I love the way you've handled the space in the living
room. It makes the room look so much bigger than it really is."
Caveat: Never suggest that anything is wrong with the taste of the
owners, even if there are acrylic fur seat covers on all the toilets
and a portrait of Elvis over the hearth with eyes that follow you
around the room.
This Homebuyers Tip was excerpted from:
The House Trap, by Alfred Gingold, Workman Publishing, 1988.
ISBN# 0894806157
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