You're Selling the Trees but They're all in a Forest

The quip that the three most important things in real estate are "location, location, location" has become such a cliche that we don't give much consideration to what it means anymore. I've posted a couple of times on my blogs about an experiment that I do sometimes going to a community I'm unfamiliar with on Realtor.com and examining the copy written for the higher end homes for sale in that market. It's strange but something always seems missing. It's context. It's what kind of forest is this? It's what's the location, location, location all about for this home?

We don't normally feel this in our own markets because we already have the context. We know the relative proximity to shopping, employment centers, good restaurants. We know if it's an urban environment or a quiet suburb. We know what the arts community is like, the economic situation, the government issues. Because of this we tend to forget that many of our potential buyers are moving here from somewhere else and yet we don't provide that context for them. The fact that Durham is the center of the universe for minor league baseball means something, after all. Or the fact that Durham is home to the most important documentary film festival in the world and is held here every spring. I've seen more attention given to ice makers and crown molding that are taken for granted in a certain level of home than information that conveys what the community has to offer. Location, location, location.

So, where does the context come from? It's actually a good subject for blogging but you can't cover everything in a few posts. One of the things that I did recently was put together my list of the top ten websites that were essential for getting to know my community. I posted it on my two local Durham blogs, DurhamLuxRE.com and SpringtreeTerritory.com.

The effort to put it together was more difficult than I thought it would be because of the problem that I mentioned. I do know the context already and had to struggle and put myself in the shoes of someone who didn't live here or know much about the community. But I think it was worth the effort and, even though I've lived and been active in Durham for over 25 years, I learned some things too.