House-hunting personality test

I recently had the great fortune to become acquainted with Danielle LaPorte, co-author of a book called "Style Statement." The book's purpose is to lead each reader through a series of questions resulting in a unique, two-word style statement. A style statement describes your personal style, and according to the book, "define(s) the true you ... Your style statement is where your essence meets your expression."

Sample style statements from the book include "Enduring Bold," "Sacred Elegance" and "Structured Soul."

Intrigued by the prospect of capturing something as holistic as one's personal style with such nuance and depth in two simple (but carefully chosen) words, I was reminded of this style statement idea the other day when working with several different sets of clients: buyers and sellers.

It occurred to me that there are distinctive types of buyers and sellers, profiles or templates for their pre-contract real estate behavior -- not so much personality types as distinctive ways I've repeatedly observed in buyers and sellers that show up in their transactions, and during the house hunting and marketing periods.

Now, when you write a style statement, you're supposed to choose two words as follows, according to the book:

Based on the 80/20 principle, the first word represents your foundation, the 80 percent your essence. The second word is your creative edge, your distinction -- it's the 20 percent that makes all the difference in being your whole self.

So, I'd say about 95 percent of my clients are sensible, smart, ethical people, at their essence. (Simply consider, as evidence of their smarts, their selection of broker: yours truly. Kidding.) So, perhaps they'd all have something lovely but basic, like "Decent" or "Brilliant" or "Righteous" or "Upstanding" as their essential foundation, the first word of their Real Estate version of LaPorte's style statement. OK, so the first word is settled.

That leaves us only to come up with the second word -- the term of distinction -- the descriptor for what makes them unique and differentiates them from each other. We'll review some profiles of seller next time. But buyers demonstrate a fascinating range of profiles when it comes to their house-hunting behavior:

The Do-It-Yourselfer (DIY-er). These are the buyers who get that they should take advantage of a pro's pricing advice, negotiation expertise, contractual representation and escrow coordination skills -- but do most of their house hunting solo. They get listings from me or online, and then head out to open houses every Sunday afternoon. They screen and perhaps ring me up to revisit places they like privately, where we discuss the comparables and offer strategies.

I recently had a DIY-er couple who, when I tried to get to the root of their high anxiety level, revealed that seeing places while so many other prospective buyers were also touring them during the open house made them feel competitive about places they didn't even like! I eventually uncovered that they were under the increasingly common, but unfortunate, impression that it was atypical for agents to drive clients around to see homes.

They thought that to even ask would create undue burden -- on me! "Pshaw," I said. "This is what I do, and you deserve to see places privately before you buy. Get over yourselves. And then get in the car."

The Screener-Outer. "Hey, T, thanks for the 52 listings you screened and sent over this week. There are 1.5 I'd like to see on Sunday." "Eh, 1.5?" "Well, we think one is really a contender. The 0.5 is one that looks interesting, but more for voyeuristic purposes than anything else. That's not a great reason to go see a place, though, right? OK, let's just go see that other one." ...CONTINUED

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