We’re well into Valentine’s Month!

The marketing started just after the Christmas trees were taken down.

You’re definitely getting mixes messages in your media.

On one hand, messages about eating healthy, losing weight, saving for say, apartments.

On the other hand, eating candy, going out for huge Valentine’s meals, and spending lots of money on your loved ones.

What’s a person to do?
When it comes to Love and Real Estate, many will tell you to check your emotions at the door of a negotiation.

There’s a part of me that agrees.

Once you fall in love with an apartment, let’s just say things get complicated.

However, let’s face it- in Manhattan and Brooklyn you’re spending $1 million on an apartment more often than not.

You should love your house, no?

Ah, it’s never easy.

And as I think about Love and Real Estate, I think of all the amazing people for whom I find apartments.

Many times, I am working with couples.

During the search, we all trade hats.

One hat is the emotional hat, thinking of the apartment as home.

Thinking of the fun you’ll have, the entertaining you’ll do, the furniture, where the photos will go, the memories you’ll create, family times etc.

What a wonderful bunch of things to think about!

A second hat is the quantitative hat.

How many square feet?

What’s the tax deductibility?

What is the market data to process to decide what value is.

The last hat could be described as the deal maker hat: What is the info we can gather about the seller?

Why are they selling?

What’s the best deal I can get?

Is the seller desperate?

All the things that are important in negotiation, on top of the things a quantitative thinker is considering.

Most couples have defined hats they wear, once they find the apartment that works as a home for them.

I also think that usually each has equal veto power on deciding what apartments they’ll add to the really possible pile.

If one person doesn’t like, it’s gone.

So, the real fun for me as a Real Estate professional is watching the dynamic within each couple.

How do they negotiate with each other?

What do they like?

What do they value?

How can I expedite the process in searching for them?

There’s a lot of “juice” here.

I learn so much from

my clients every day about a range of subjects.

Of course, making the deal happen is where much of the juice is as well.

Really working to find what “value” is for my buyers, as subjective as that can be, as well as trying to find a generic market-data driven number.

Hopefully, the value for them is much greater than what they actually have to pay!

This is the ideal situation and is probably a place where most deals happen, wouldn’t you think?
Well, I’d like to think that through this process with my couples I can always see who has great relationships and who doesn’t.

But usually, I’m just having a fun time enjoying the ride.

And I miss my clients when we’re not talking and emailing back and forth, once the deal is closed.

So, as we head closer to Valentine’s Day- I’ll wish everyone a great one- and remember- if you don’t like the hat you’re wearing, you can always put on a different one.