Comments on: Is Your Need to Win Keeping You Homeless? http://nwwayoflife.com/buyer-info/is-your-need-to-win-keeping-you-homeless Real estate and community information for Washington and North West area. Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:07:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: d downer http://nwwayoflife.com/buyer-info/is-your-need-to-win-keeping-you-homeless/comment-page-1#comment-98 d downer Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:58:18 +0000 http://nwwayoflife.com/?p=1535#comment-98 Hi Brandon, nice post today. I have been following your thoughts from all over the western hemisphere. I agree with you ... really. The idea that something might already be a good deal, and should be taken as is, is not just in houses. It applies in all sorts of transactions and is the same if you are a buyer or a seller. The common denominator to passing up on a good\fair deal is "greed". The seller may be too greedy and will pass on sure profits today for the hope of more tommorrow, and the buyer the same in a way. I have to keep this in mind all the time, to temper my own freudian need to win, and greed. Negotiations, when needed, are a game, and that's why you like it probably. I believe you want to "win" as well. The 'Told you so' comment reveals some motivations. I don't believe a house, is a house, is a house, but when in negotiation as a buyer, I try to remember there are other house deals down the road if the current one falls through. So far, this has been personally true. Houses are not commodities, and they do all have a story.... to a point. The beige suburban development cookie cutter stuff's story I think is weak and boring. Give it 20 to 100 years to make it interesting. In the end, I look for houses whose story I want to be a part of. Ownership of a house could be looked at the opposite way. The house owns the "owner", and will long outlast that person. We just enrich it, give it nourishment and eventually become its ghosts. Couple other things related to recent posts ... the front door remodel is spot on. Especially if you go get something unique, old and cool. Like a restore classy door. Similarly, doing the front door, installing new cool house numbers, and a cool mail slot is the triumverate of cheap upgrades. ... got my first Bellingham house in the summer of 1989, when the bidding wars were crazy and property prices jumped seemingly 40% in 3 months. There were 3 offers on a york street house the day after it went on the market. Mine was 1k over full price but I wasn't the highest. Got the house though, because I'm a pollock, and the lady who owned had been married to a pollock for decades. Dumb luck ... but that's my story ... and thank god elevator clauses hadn't been invented yet. Hi Brandon, nice post today. I have been following your thoughts from all over the western hemisphere. I agree with you … really. The idea that something might already be a good deal, and should be taken as is, is not just in houses. It applies in all sorts of transactions and is the same if you are a buyer or a seller. The common denominator to passing up on a good\fair deal is “greed”. The seller may be too greedy and will pass on sure profits today for the hope of more tommorrow, and the buyer the same in a way. I have to keep this in mind all the time, to temper my own freudian need to win, and greed.

Negotiations, when needed, are a game, and that’s why you like it probably. I believe you want to “win” as well. The ‘Told you so’ comment reveals some motivations. I don’t believe a house, is a house, is a house, but when in negotiation as a buyer, I try to remember there are other house deals down the road if the current one falls through. So far, this has been personally true.

Houses are not commodities, and they do all have a story…. to a point. The beige suburban development cookie cutter stuff’s story I think is weak and boring. Give it 20 to 100 years to make it interesting.

In the end, I look for houses whose story I want to be a part of. Ownership of a house could be looked at the opposite way. The house owns the “owner”, and will long outlast that person. We just enrich it, give it nourishment and eventually become its ghosts.

Couple other things related to recent posts

… the front door remodel is spot on. Especially if you go get something unique, old and cool. Like a restore classy door. Similarly, doing the front door, installing new cool house numbers, and a cool mail slot is the triumverate of cheap upgrades.

… got my first Bellingham house in the summer of 1989, when the bidding wars were crazy and property prices jumped seemingly 40% in 3 months. There were 3 offers on a york street house the day after it went on the market. Mine was 1k over full price but I wasn’t the highest. Got the house though, because I’m a pollock, and the lady who owned had been married to a pollock for decades. Dumb luck … but that’s my story … and thank god elevator clauses hadn’t been invented yet.

]]>