Today John sits down and interviews Tommy Davidson about some of a home buyer's biggest fears.

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Transcript

JOHN:  Hey, guys.  Here with another edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee.  I have a treat for you today.  I’ve got the best buyers specialist in Murfreesboro.  All kidding aside, Tommy Davidson is with me.  Tommy’s been with me for gosh, how long now, Tommy?

 

TOMMY:  Twenty years at least.

 

JOHN:  We started when we were twelve.  Actually, Tommy’s been with me for seven or eight years.  And Tommy has probably walked through about every home in Murfreesboro on the market.  He shows a ton of property, works with a lot of buyers.  So a segment I wanted to do today was talk about buyers’ fears.  So I’m just going to pose it to Tommy.  Tommy, in your opinion, what is the No. 1 biggest fear in a buyer right now?

 

 TOMMY:  I think definitely the No. 1 biggest fear is that they have a fear of paying too much for the home right now.

 

JOHN:  Now is a lot of that because of the market we’re in and the media’s telling us it’s a buyer’s market?

 

TOMMY:  Definitely.  And they had a friend that bought in ’07, ’06 maybe and they see that they’re struggling or they’re upside down in their home.  Or they turn it on CNBC and they hear about all the foreclosures.

 

JOHN:  Okay.  So how do you help them subside that fear?  How do you help them quench that fear, to handle that objection?  What do you say to them to give them kind of a clarity that they’re not going to pay too much?

 

TOMMY:  Well, one thing, I try to build their confidence because I usually put them on some type of a search where they see what’s out there.  And I tell them they probably know the market as well as I do or probably even better.  They get an e-mail every day and they’re looking at homes, and one day, they might get a home that’s priced so much better than one they saw two weeks ago.  So I really let them know that hey, they know a lot about this market as well.

 

JOHN:  You know, I was at a seminar a couple of weeks ago, and the teacher said typically the buyer is the smartest person in the market.  They get it.  So a lot of times, they’re going to get it themselves.  But they need reassurance.

 

TOMMY:  Definitely.

 

JOHN:  So how do we reassure them that they’re okay?

 

TOMMY:  Well, once they pick the home that they want, we’re going to come back in here and we’re going to do our homework like you said.  And we’re going to pull up homes in that area probably in the subdivision, and we’re going to compare what the last home that sold for.  And what I tell them is in this type of market, we’re probably not going to want to pay what the last person paid because the market’s declining.

 

So I reassure them, look, we were paying less usually per square foot—that’s what our market looks at—we’re paying less than what the last person paid.  And usually, we’re paying less than anybody else has.

 

JOHN:  Right, right.  What’s another safeguard in our market that they have, just in case everybody’s wrong?

 

TOMMY:  The final say so is the appraisal, and appraisals aren’t like they used to be where you could go get your home refinanced and pull all that money out.  The appraisal is much more accurate.

 

JOHN:  Much more conservative.

 

TOMMY:  They are very conservative.  Very conservative.

 

JOHN:  A lot of reform to that industry.

 

TOMMY:  Definitely.

 

JOHN:  All right, Tommy.  So we talked about one of the biggest fears is paying too much.  Let’s talk about another fear that a buyer might have.  What are other fears you’re seeing out there from a buyer?

 

TOMMY:  If they find the one they want, it seems like they get a little hesitant because they think something may be wrong with the home. 

 

JOHN:  And why do they think something’s wrong with it?

 

TOMMY:  Because it’s on the market.

 

JOHN:  Tommy and I kid around because that’s always been one of my favorites.  You’ll see people when they walk in a home, their eyes light up.  You can tell this is the home for them.  And then they’ll go, “Why is it still here?”  And I’m like, “Well, we only show you homes that are still available.”  But I guess that’s just human nature.  We want to know other people like what we like and sometimes we don’t understand.  Well, how do you help subside that fear?

 

TOMMY:  Well, some days, it may have just been on the market four or five days and I’ll let them know we’re in a buyer’s market and it could take 30 to 60 days for something to sell.  The other thing is it could be overpriced.  Four out of ten homes I think are what you’re saying that are going to sell in our market.

 

JOHN:  Uh-huh.

 

TOMMY:  So there’s a lot of good homes out there that do not sell.  And I see them all the time where I don’t know why they haven’t sold.  They seem to be priced well.  They’re in great condition, but it’s just a challenging market out there for sellers right now.

 

JOHN:  And sometimes, I’ve noticed it’s still on the market 120 days later, but when you really do your homework, you’re like, “Well, they started here and finally 120 days later, they’ve gotten the price down to where it’s reasonable.”

 

TOMMY:  Right.

 

JOHN:  And they’ve probably been hurt by that because they were at a high price so long.  So there’s many reasons, but we all have fears.  Buyers have fears; sellers have fears.  As the human race, we have fears.  That’s a lot of times what holds us back from doing anything.  So hopefully, this helps you if you’re a buyer out there on some of the common fears and that you’re not alone.  That you’re just like a lot of other people.

 

So if we can help you in any way, subside your fears, answer questions, please give us a call, 867-3020.  Thanks a lot, Tommy.

 

TOMMY:  Thank you, John.