Brian French Evolutionary Real Estate

The Internet is undoubtedly the greatest research tool in all history, but it still comes down to the person interpreting all that information to apply it. One man is making a critical error.

A little background information: Much of our downtown in Beaver Dam, WI was built over a river. Over the past few years, the river has flooded, causing significant damage, and catching the attention of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The DNR has indicated that it will use its condemnation power to order these building removed from the water-way, which is held in the public trust. The City of Beaver Dam stepped in with a plan to purchase all the buildings in the water-way and remove them, thereby alleviating the financial burden on the owner. If the owners did not accept the offer from the City, they would then risk condemnation from the DNR, and would not be paid one dime for their building and would have to pay to have their building removed (demolished). All but one accepted the offer.

This lone hold-out researched "condemnation" on the Internet and came to the conclusion that: If the DNR did condemn his property, he must be "fairly compensated" under the Constitution of the United States. It is extremely unfortunate that our friend has not the benefit of legal council. He has confused the two types of condemnation. There is the taking of a property by the government for which just compensation must be paid, and then there is condemnation when the improvements on a property are illegal as defined by local ordinance, statute or law. Condemnation for these non-conforming properties does not require just compensation.

I hope our lone hold-out gets some council (other than the Internet) soon

We humans basically have two brains - a reflexive and a reflective brain. The reflexive brain works under a cloak...without our knowledge. This is the behavioral, emotional - evolutionarypart of us. On the other hand, when the reflective brain is working on something, we definitely know it....it's as if we turned it on. You'll see - soon - how this pertains to the behavior of buyer/sellers - how we can use this knowledge to help them.

For most purposes in daily life, our brain is a superbly functioning machine, instantly steering us away from danger while reliably guiding us toward basic rewards like food, shelter and love.

It is not as if emotion is the enemy and reason is the ally of good-financial decisions. People who have suffered head injuries that prevent them from engaging the emotional circuity in their brains can be terrible investors. And, pure rationality with no feelings can be as bad for our portfolio as sheer emotion unchecked by reason.

For best results, we need to harness emotions, not strangle them.

Next time, we'll start looking into the lessons that have emerged from studying the behavior of investors.

I can present these facts, but I'll need your help in trying to figure out how we (real estate agents) can apply these lessons

I'm working on a lecture and would like love your involvement and feedback Thanks ahead of time. The premise for my lecture is that buyer and seller behavior is based on evolution. Greed, fear regret, happiness, panic, cockiness, surprise, risk and reward are just some of the topics we'll need to cover. For nearly man's entire history as a species, we were hunter-gatherers, living in small nomadic bands, seeking mates, finding shelter, pursuing prey, avoiding predators, and foraging for fruit, seeds and roots. For our earliest ancestors, decisions were fewer and less complex: Avoid the places where lions lurk. Learn the hints of coming rainfall, the clues of antelope just over the horizon, the signs of fresh water nearby. Understanding who is trustworthy, figure out how to collaborate with them and learn how to outsmart those who are not. Those are the kins of tasks our brain evolved to perform. The human brain (buyer and sellers) does not just add and multiply, reason and solve. When we win, lose, or risk money, profound emotions are stirred up. It is not necessarily about money, its also about intangible motives like avoiding regret or achieving pride. Investing (buying or selling a home) requires you to make decisions using data from the past and hunches in the present about risks and rewards you will harvest in the future - filling you with feelings like hope, greed, cockiness, surprise, fear, panic, regret and happiness.