I was honored to be interviewed in the March 09 issue of Lake Magazine, Lake Martin edition. The topic was the outlook for the Lake Martin real estate market for the rest of 2009.  It was a really good article, Kenneth Boone did a great job of getting lots of different perspectives.  I recommend it.

Normally when I have been quoted or linked elsewhere, I would put excerpts here and talk mostly about what I said or my reactions to the other peoples’ opinions.  I’ll be honest, it’s not exactly bad publicity, and there is still a tiny ego boost in seeing ones’ name in print.

Not this time.

As I was flipping through the rest of the issue, I realized that there is a much more important article in it.

Holly Grisamore wrote this month’s My Lake Martin column.  She wrote a very personal account of why they love Lake Martin so much, and why their lake home has become such a central part of their family’s life now.

That’s more important to me because I was the agent that assisted them in buying the home.  That’s what it’s all about.  I am not taking credit, though. I didn’t make Lake.  I didn’t give them the wherewithal or the desire to buy.

It’s not about me.  It’s about their love for the lake, and their desire to create a place for their family to always remember, a place that is really more home than the different “town” houses a family might occupy over the years.

Again, I am not trying to take credit.  Far from it. I think what I did right with the Grisamores, and try to replicate with all buyers, is to be a good assistant – an able, knowledgeable, hard working local guide.  I try to get to know them, their wants and needs, then pursue them doggedly, and then get out of the way.

If you read almost any “How To Get Rich Selling Real Estate” book or attend some rah-rah glamor shot seminar, the “experts” will almost without fail tell you to go about finding your “target buyer.” You are supposed to order them up like George Jetson does a meal – enter in age range, net worth, urgency to buy and – presto – here’s your target demographic that you should then “farm” for leads.  Maybe that works somewhere for some people.  Not me.

I am looking for buyers that hope to see their kids get engaged on that dock, or remember how it feels to truly relax by the water, or want to know how free you feel when you ski for the first time.  People that know the meaning of non-pecuinary benefits even if they’ve never heard an economist define it.

The Grisamores typify my “target demographic.”

Does anybody out there own a database of people like that?