House Hunting is Just Like Easter Egg Hunting
By Chris Petry
I spent the last couple weekends photographing Spring holiday-related events, both in-office and in public venues, sponsored by Berkshire agents. First, of course, there’s the infamous Easter Bunny photo. You know the one. You take your toddler, already wailing and thrashing about like a fish on the dock, and place them onto the lap of a giant anthropomorphic rabbit’s lap for a couple awkward photos you will definitely use for blackmail in their teenage years. Sometimes, they’ll even get to grab a treat from the Easter Bunny’s basket after they’ve soiled his suit with tears and chocolate chip cookies. It’s a time-honored tradition I see no reason to change.
Next, there’s the Easter Egg hunt. Someone, or a group of someones, gets the pleasure of spending the morning on a freezing green hiding thousands of eggs for kiddos to collect within 10 minutes. Most eggs are duds. Or they might have a single piece of candy inside them. The most coveted prize however is the “golden” egg. The egg may or may not actually be gold in color but inside that egg you’ll find a prize way better than a Tootsie Roll. It could be a dollar. Or maybe $5. Or perhaps, a gift certificate.
The Easter Egg hunt, is a lot like real estate if you think about it. There are millions of homes out there but only one can be the golden egg. It’s in your pre-approved price range, it’s in the neighborhood or development you prefer, it’s move-in ready and its within reasonable distance of the amenities you desire. Flipping the metaphor for sellers, the buyer who presents the best deal for your investment is that golden egg.
Yet another way we can repurpose our Easter Egg metaphor is to imagine time itself as the golden egg. Let me explain. You find the home of your dreams. It’s asking price is right on the money or your REALTOR is able to successfully negotiate the price down to where you need it and the seller is still comfortable. This time, the conditions in the market are also perfect. The renegotiated price is less than the home would’ve sold for two years prior and the interest rate is hovering at around 3%. You entered the market at just the right time. You found your golden egg. The problem is, that golden egg, while not impossible to find, can be affected by external forces.
At the beginning of the egg hunt, Egg Hider #1 placed the golden egg in the visible opening of a white oak tree. There it is, just waiting to be found. Then it fell from the tree and rolled downhill into a pond. It’s still there to be found only no one would think to look for it in the pond because why would it be there in the first place? Sometimes outside forces, natural or otherwise, affect the obtainability of that golden egg. Higher average sale prices and interest rates have felt like that for people looking for homes the last couple years.
Here's some good news: in the case of the literal egg, the person who hid it doesn’t know it’s in the pond either. So, no negotiation is going to make it materialize. In the world of real estate, however, EVERYTHING is negotiable and so we part from the egg metaphor. Your agent can benefit on your behalf to bring down a home price to a place where you’re more comfortable. It’s not always successful but at least the possibility exists. With interest rates, you might lock a higher rate now but when those rates are slashed by the FED, you can always revisit the terms of the loan with your lender and bring your rate down to reflect the change in the market. You turn a blue egg or a pink egg into a golden egg with the right professional help behind you. Probably a little tenacity and open-mindedness on your part as well.
There’s a whole park teeming with eggs to be discovered. Oh, sorry, I promised we’d drop the egg metaphor. There’s an exciting market of homes waiting to be discovered, your golden e… dream home is out there. It may not be when or where you expected to find it. The terms for the acquisition may not seem perfect but the terms can be changed. The terms can be altered for your specific needs. Forget what I said, back to the egg metaphor. Isn’t it better to grab that egg and put it in your basket now, before someone else does? You’d hate to miss out on taking home the grand prize. The golden egg. Could be a while before someone realizes it’s in the pond and puts it back in the tree for rediscovery.
