“Teams are a trend in the region’s residential real estate market. Sharing resources, from office workers to Webmasters, has become practical as agents struggle to keep up with local and Internet listings. According to the National Association of Realtors, Web listings are now consulted by 80 percent of Americans looking to buy homes.
Successful teams like Ms. Genovesi’s are actively courted by big national agencies, which are only too happy to encourage their local, personalized approach. Ms. Genovesi says she has had many corporate suitors but has opted to stay with a parent company, William Raveis Real Estate and Home Services, because its founder and chief executive, William Raveis, “allows you to unleash your personality in the business.”
The Rich Shop Differently????
Like the:
"The Poor Shop Differently?”
Sounds like the financially average real estate customer should expect less customer service because of financial status and home purchase price.
Are the monetarily blessed entitled to more expertise?
Do the rich really pay more?
Do the rich really get more?
Sounds like a propaganda perception to make average consumers believe they need to “pay more”?
The slow housing market has had an impact on real estate companies income. Convincing the
consumer to spend more during these trying times may help balance a real estate companies books, especially when spring market tends to bring out the buyers.
Bargain Hunting is Not Just a Poor Man’s Game
Investors rarely pay full-price for anything unless they have insightful information into the future that may guarantee a gain.
I know a financial guru and his wife that are the owners of a waterfront home. The property was
purchased for millions. It has been nurtured by more wisely spent money and has grown into grandiose French-inspired estate with a superb view of the water and new dock. From the stories they have shared,I have not heard how the rich shop differently. The couple haggled with builders, painters and decorators. The refined mistress of the home was even “the contractor” over-seeing the finishing touches to the massive project. She hired, fired and commanded craftsman. OK, rumor has it she was a real taskmaster.
But, that is not any different from the average consumer staying in control of their “project and purse”?
Regularly, I run into the same couple at COSTCO. He has even mentioned at informal gatherings with great pride that he purchased his khakis at COSTCO. Once, I caught him buying his wife a bouquet of flowers for their anniversary. (They are still married, so I guess she didn’t mind, and I will never tell.)
Have you been to a 2nd Hand Store or Consignment Shop lately? From what I see when I pull into the parking
lot, the “well to do” isn’t just cleaning out their closets. They’re buying. Polished Mercedes, Jaguar, Lexus and Hummers chauffeur in the well-dressed and perfectly coifed. The affluent peruse the aisles with the less privileged looking for treasures hiding in the cast-offs.
Confession: My hobby is antique collecting. My home is a museum of conversation pieces.
Friends and family are tickled when I present them with something they admire in my home. For me, the good feeling doesn’t come with ownership…giving things away gives good feeling, but the real fun and excitement is in the hunt. Going out into a jungle of junk trailing any rare objet d'art. I love “snagging and bagging” and carry the prize home mount it on the wall.
Perhaps that is why I always run into the prosperous (and dealers) when I am on antique safari.
The rich may shop more comfortably and confidently, but making a “trophy” deal at the trendy SA Boutique
(Salvation Army) or buying low and selling high in the stock market, is a still story to share sipping imported fine wine.
Disclaimer: The poor, middle, and rich classes do have those in their ranks that spend, spend, spend and would never think of paying less than retail, higher commissions and more money for the same thing that possibly could
be had for less. Those people are a salesman’s dream, right?
Posted by: Real Estate Gordian Knot | March 05, 2007 at 01:37 PM