This week’s story is a little amusing, although it didn’t feel particularly amusing at the time.
It didn’t teach me much about representing buyers. It did, however, change the conversation I would have with sellers on my next listing, and pretty much every listing after that.
This happened early in my career, back when I was with RE/MAX. I received a lead through the national website from a family looking to buy a house in Barrie.
Their son was coming to town to attend a private religious college and study to become a preacher. They were a very devout Christian family, and they had a practical plan: buy a house where their son could live, rent the other rooms to students attending the same school, and build some equity along the way.
Instead of paying rent for several years and leaving with a stack of receipts, he would hopefully leave with an asset.
We started looking at homes with access to the school and public transit. Their budget was fairly modest, so some of the places we visited were, to put it politely, a little rough around the edges.
I could feel their enthusiasm fading with each showing.
I generally try to find something comfortably within a buyer’s budget, but the less expensive options weren’t doing much for this family. We started looking closer to the upper end of their range, hoping to find something they would feel better about their son living in.
Then we walked into a house near one of Barrie’s GO stations.
There was a Harley-Davidson parked in the dining room.
Now, you see some interesting decorating choices in this business. A motorcycle beside the dining table is certainly one of them.
I remember thinking, “Well, that’s different.”
As we continued through the house, though, the decorating theme became a little clearer.
There were photographs, memorabilia, and a motorcycle vest with the Hell’s Angels name and patches on it. Taken together, everything on display certainly gave us the impression that we were standing in a member’s personal residence.
And there I was, with a very church-going family shopping for a home for their future-preacher son.
I had not anticipated this particular clash of lifestyles when I booked the showing.
None of those details had been apparent in the listing photos. I hadn’t known what we were walking into, and, being fairly new to the business, I honestly didn’t know what to say once we were there.
Even now, I’m not sure there’s a perfect line for that moment.
We finished the showing, and that was pretty much the end of my relationship with those buyers.
They stopped returning my calls.
I can’t tell you for certain why. They never gave me an explanation. I suspect that showing had something to do with it, but that’s my interpretation, rather than anything they actually told me.
What I do know is that I never heard from them again.
The Lesson Came With My Next Listing
The useful lesson wasn’t really about buying a house. It was about preparing one for sale.
From then on, I became religious about discussing what sellers had on display.
And yes, the pun is intended.
When buyers walk through a home, they notice far more than the room sizes, flooring, and kitchen cabinets. They notice photographs, collections, signs, personal belongings, and anything else that draws their attention.
Sometimes those details tell such a strong story about the person living there that buyers stop thinking about the house altogether.
In this case, I’m fairly confident nobody left discussing the dining room’s potential for entertaining.
They remembered the Harley.
Give Buyers Room to Picture Their Own Lives
That experience helped shape how I talk to sellers about depersonalizing a home.
Family photographs, prominent religious or political displays, highly personal collections, and other attention-grabbing belongings are all worth discussing before showings begin.
The conversation should be respectful. People have every reason to feel comfortable expressing themselves in their own homes. Preparing that home for sale simply means thinking about how it will feel to someone walking through for the first time.
I wouldn’t ask someone to hide their race, heritage, or where they came from. My advice is to reduce the personal distractions and give buyers room to imagine their own lives there.
And if your collection includes a motorcycle vest with a one-per-cent patch, I would strongly suggest putting that away for the showings.
Possibly move the Harley out of the dining room while you’re at it.
What Stayed With Me
I couldn’t have known about belongings that weren’t visible in the listing photos. But the experience showed me just how much the contents of a home can influence a buyer’s reaction to it.
That is something I can help my sellers prepare for.
Before a listing goes live, we talk about what buyers will see, what might distract them, and what we can put away so the property gets the attention it deserves.
It’s a conversation I’ve been having ever since.
All because of a Harley-Davidson in a dining room.
