Many of my clients are fairly tech savvy. They enjoy looking up property data on their own and telling me how much sellers paid for properties. They’ll use Bing.com’s Birdseye views to check out locations before we actually go visit a property. And they Google people’s names to see what they can find on the web about them.
That’s right, several of my clients, both buyers and sellers, use the Internet to find out more information about the other side. Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Google links to other information about you. It’s all out there for anyone to see. And people do look. I’ve had sellers who tell me the occupation of the potential buyer immediately after I’ve phoned them to discuss the contract I just emailed.
Clients seem to think this “research” is helpful. It gives them a leg up on the other party and they figure the other people aren’t smart enough to do the same type of search on them. Personally, I find in most cases that this type of “research” can hinder negotiations rather than help them.
I’ve found that certain types of occupations have stereotypes associated with them. For example, attorneys would typically be stereotyped as tough negotiators because it’s a big part of their professional training and job, in many cases. Does that mean that all attorneys will be tough in their negotiations? Not necessarily. But by doing this “research” my client could get a preconceived notion about the other side which would cloud their ability to negotiate effectively.
So what do I do when I find my clients offering information that they found out about the other party? I typically say “that’s nice, but let’s please focus on the offer they’ve presented.” We need to determine how the offer works for my client and use that as the basis for our negotiation, not some random information about the other party that doesn’t necessarily have any relevance to the transaction.
I’m obviously a fan of the Web, but not everything on the Web is productive or a good use of time. This is one case where the information isn’t necessarily relevant and it seems like it sometimes hinders progress and keeps people from thinking about the issues that do matter with an offer they’re making or receiving. So, Facebook away, but just not for your real estate transaction.