We all know the the saying, when it comes to Real Estate, it’s all about 3 things; Location, Location, Location. Are at least that is what we are told growing up. Some of us listen to this, others not as much, which brings me to today’s Blog Topic. When it comes to Residential Real Estate, there are two schools of thought, being Home Centric or being Neighborhood Centric. What do I mean? Allow me a few brief paragraphs…

Home Centric

Buyers that are Home Centric tend to look for the perfect home, and care little about the actual location (within reason of course). These are buyers that know what they want, in terms of the actual home, and are willing to go to different locations in order to find it. They want a 4 bedroom, 3 bath home that is modern in appearance, updated appliances, open floor plan, etc etc. They don’t care if it’s in Summerlin, or Mountains Edge, or Green Valley or Providence. They simply want the right home, and as long as the neighborhood is okay, they are good with it. This type of Buyer either does not have kids, or has kids that are maybe in private school where school zoning doesn’t matter. They could also simply be okay with multiple schools.

Home Centric Buyers tend to look at MORE homes than Neighborhood Centric buyers, because they are looking for that PERFECT property, and are willing to forgo certain things (like area) to find the right home that speaks to them.

When I am working with a Home Centric Buyer, I am very aware and am building a profile of the home they are looking for. When we are looking at homes, I’ll ask them “What do you love about this property and what do you not?” This allows me to build a profile, to help remove some of the clutter in terms of housing. After all, when there are close to 9,000 homes available on our market, making sure we are looking at the RIGHT homes is important for everyone.

Neighborhood Centric

These are our Buyers who subscribe to the “Location, Location, Location” mantra, and will do what they can to be in a certain area, within limits of course. Maybe they want/need to be zoned for Palo Verde High School, or Coronado High School. Maybe they want a SPECIFIC subdivision, like the Vineyards or Eagle Rock in Summerlin.

These are buyers that know what they want, and our scope of search is much more detailed. While this makes the search ‘easier’ in terms of covering areas, it will be a limited selection of inventory. These buyers need to have some flexibility when it comes to finding the house of their dreams, IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD they desire. Perhaps they want 5 bedrooms, but would be OKAY with 4. Or they want a pool, but a home that has no pool should be considered.

For me, working with these types of Buyers usually means a little more background digging to fully understand what they are looking for, WHY they are looking for it, and then finding out their true MUST HAVES vs. WANTS. After all, there are close to 9,000 homes on the market as I said, but if someone NEEDS to be in the 89144 Zip Code, there are only 108 homes currently available. So we know our area, but our inventory is minimal comparatively. And if they need 4 or more bedrooms in 89144? Currently… 22 homes!

If you’re a Neighborhood Centric Buyer, there needs to be a combination of a patience and flexibility. You need to be patient if your NEEDS are not available at that current time, and you need to be flexible enough to know that the perfect home may be a small tweak from what you think you want.

Neither of these approaches is the RIGHT approach or the WRONG approach, just depends on the individual buyer, and their needs and beliefs.

Are you a Home Centric, or Neighborhood Centric Buyer?