Sylva, NC

Occasionally, in fact more times than you would think, our buyers want to drive when we look at properties. Does this happen to you and what do you think about clients driving?

There’s a couple of reasons that I’m usually quite okay with buyers doing the driving…we have no traffic problems to speak of! Just another great reason to move to this area. The other reason is that if the buyer is doing the driving, they are usually highly committed to the purchase.

Clients sometimes want to drive for a variety of reasons. They feel they get to know the area better if they’ve driven. Sometimes they get car sick when someone else is driving. They want to travel with their dogs, their parrots (Hi Frisco and Lulu), their children, their parents, their “stuff”. Maybe in some recessed corner of their minds they feel they have more “control” over the day. Lots and lots of reasons.

How do I feel about it? Usually, just fine. In fact, sometimes I feel pretty liberated to not have the steering wheel in front of me. I would probably not be as comfortable if we were navigating traffic jams in places like Miami, Newark, Los Angeles or Houston but really….this is Western North Carolina for goodness sake.

There might be some comments coming in suggesting that we take two cars…mini convoys through the mountains and I’ve done that. Not often, but if there is a huge car load I’ll consider it but in my opinion there is too much value in the conversations between properties that I want and need to participate in. Plus, there is the whole headache of having to keep track of people in the rear view mirror and don’t get me started on contributing even more towards global warming by driving two cars.

The only downside that I’ve found so far in being the passenger instead of the driver is that as you know, our cars are also our moving offices and once in a while something I need is in my car back at the office. Other than that though, for me it’s pretty okay to enjoy the passing scenery while someone else drives.

What do you think about buyers wanting to drive while they look for their new home? Do you think the location and traffic activity should have any bearing on whether you let the buyers drive or not?