How to Help Your Client Avoid a Bad Morning After

There are definite reasons why spring is a hot time in the real estate business. The weather is usually nice, it is easy to view properties and you can see everything than may have been hidden for the last few months. Clients may opt to wait out of concern that it can be difficult to see what is under the cover of snow, and not just as it relates to the property your client wants to look at but also as it relates to adjacent properties.

One way to overcome the objection that a client wants to wait until spring to buy is to point out that you can show them what is under the cover of snow.

There are many ways that you can do this but the real estate tools in your arsenal are important.

Google Street View – You can Google the address, click maps and then drop the little man icon onto the street to do a virtual walk down the street and look at the property in question from the street and also adjacent properties.

Another thing you can do on Google is just perform a general search of the property address. 

The beauty of social media is that the owners may have posted photos of the property in different seasons. Additionally, it may have been listed in the past and if the other real estate sales professionals didn’t delete the listings everywhere they listed, there may still be photos available online – photos you don’t have. A quick check can sometimes yield a goldmine.

Skip a step - Online tools like GeoWarehouse and mobile apps like ViMO enable you to instantly generate exterior imagery of the subject property and also aerial imagery. Some of this imagery comes from Google so you can actually skip the step of looking at the property on Google because you can access the same imagery here.

Aesthetic issues such as landscaping aren’t as concerning because they can be changed by the new homeowner. However, issues such as what the deck looks like and things/structures that may exist that are below the snow may be more concerning.

The last thing you want your client to do is purchase a home, take possession and once the snow melts, discover some unsightly attribute of the property which is costly to resolve. Or worse, something that exists on an adjacent property that presents major issues.

On the sell side, you can show your client things they may not be able to see, such as a ravine or golf course that a property backs onto, which may just look like a wall of white in the winter. Or maybe a driveway is larger than it looks because some of it is under snow.

The more you can do for/show your customer, the more value you provide. Being able to access imagery and show your clients everything they need to know about a potential property, sets the stage for a buying decision!

Don’t let concerns about snow coverage convince a buyer they need to wait. Give them the info they want and need to make a purchase no matter the season. For more information, visit www.myvimo.ca today.