What I Would Never Tell a Client to Do, But Watched Them Do Anyway…

Let me be clear before we get into this…I am not writing this to call anyone out or make past clients feel bad about decisions they made. I am writing this because real estate is one of the biggest financial moves of your life and the internet is full of content that makes it look easy, clean, and straightforward. It is not always any of those things. And the stories nobody tells are usually the ones worth hearing.

So here are the things I have watched clients do that I would never advise and what I wish I had said louder in the moment.

Waiving the Inspection to Win the Offer

This one keeps me up at night.

I get it. The market is competitive, you found the house, and your agent (or someone online) told you that waiving inspection is how you win. And sometimes it works out fine. But sometimes it absolutely does not.

I watched a buyer waive inspection on a house they loved. They won the offer, they were thrilled, they moved in. Six months later they were looking at a $30,000 foundation issue that nobody saw coming because nobody looked. The house felt right. It showed beautifully. And it had a very expensive secret hiding underneath it.

An inspection is not just a formality. It is the one chance you have to know what you are actually buying before you own it. I will always fight for an inspection contingency when I can get one. And if the market truly will not allow it, we talk through that risk honestly before you decide, not after.

Listing Too High Because It Feels Good

Sellers, this one is for you.

I have sat across from clients who had a number in their head before I ever pulled a single comp. And I understand why. Your home means something to you. You put money into it, you made memories in it, and Zillow told you it was worth X so obviously it is worth X.

Except Zillow is not selling your house. The market is.

Overpricing feels safe because it leaves room to negotiate down. But what actually happens is your home sits. Days on market climb. Buyers start wondering what is wrong with it. You end up doing a price reduction that draws less attention than a well-priced listing would have from day one and you net less than you would have if we had priced it right to begin with.

I have watched sellers leave real money on the table because they started too high and chased the market down. It is one of the most common and most costly mistakes in real estate and it is almost always avoidable.

Falling in Love Before the Negotiation is Over

This one is sneaky because it does not feel like a mistake in the moment. It feels like excitement. And excitement is good until it starts making your financial decisions for you.

I have watched buyers mentally move into a house before we even had an accepted offer. They were already picking paint colors, telling their friends the address, planning where the couch would go. And because of that, every counteroffer felt personal. Every negotiation felt like a threat. They ended up paying more than they needed to because walking away felt impossible.

Staying emotionally available to walk away is one of the most powerful tools a buyer has. The second a seller knows you are in love, your leverage shrinks. I always tell my clients to feel everything you want to feel on the inside. On the outside, we stay cool.

Making a Major Financial Move Right Before Closing

You would think this one would be obvious. It is not.

I have watched buyers finance a car, open a new credit card, and make large cash purchases in the weeks between going under contract and closing. Every single one of those things can affect your debt to income ratio, trigger a re-review from the lender, and in a worst case scenario blow up your financing days before you are supposed to get the keys.

Your lender will run your credit again before closing. Your financial picture needs to look the same at closing as it did when you got approved. No exceptions. No big purchases. No new accounts. Just patience for a few more weeks.

Skipping the Final Walkthrough

The final walkthrough is not a formality. It is your last chance to confirm the home is in the same condition it was when you wrote the offer, that agreed upon repairs were completed, and that the sellers did not leave behind a garage full of stuff that is now your problem.

I have watched buyers skip the final walkthrough because they were busy, or because they trusted everything was fine, or because they just wanted to get to closing. And most of the time it is fine. But sometimes it is not. And once you have signed those papers, your options get a lot more limited.

It takes thirty minutes. Do the walkthrough.

Final Thought

I do not tell these stories to scare you. I tell them because an informed client is a protected client. The best thing I can do for the people I work with is be honest, even when the honest thing is harder to hear than the comfortable thing.

Real estate has a lot of noise. A lot of content designed to make the process look glamorous and simple. And sometimes it is. But when it is not, you deserve an agent who has seen the hard stuff, learned from it, and is not afraid to talk about it.

That is the kind of agent I am trying to be. And if you are buying or selling in West Michigan, that is exactly what you are going to get from me.