Can you see how to find out what they value now and how people's values may change over time? Once you work out what they value, you can make an offer that you know will be accepted. Guess who's joined us? Lawrence, thank you for coming along. You're most welcome. Today I'm going to ask Lawrence about where he lives currently, because I would like to find out why he chose where he chose. Lawrence, can you tell me what was important to you about where you are living right now? In fact, actually, where are you living right now? I'm living in Balmain, Sydney. Balmain in Sydney. What was important to you when you were looking for a place to live? We did look around for a while. I think how we finally settled on Balmain is really it's easier to get to uni. So it had to be accessible to university. Is that right? That's right. Location was important? Absolutely. Okay. Now, if you look at location, could it have been anywhere that was close to uni or was Balmain particularly important for you? Yeah. It could be close to uni, but then again, the places around uni is a little bit boring. He wanted something that wasn't as boring. Yes. As a location, were you tossing up between Balmain and somewhere else? Yes. We were looking at Epping as well. Epping? Yeah. Epping is in fact closer to uni, but Balmain is not as close, but it's close enough. What else was important to you apart from location and proximity? I guess in my case, you want to be close to the amenities like restaurants. You wanted to have what? Amenities, restaurants, public transport. That's it. Okay. Great. Pubs. Pubs. What else was important to you about finding a place? Was the type of dwelling important? Whether it was an apartment or a house? Yes, of course. It had to be house? It had to be houses. Yes. Fantastic. What else was important? Was the size important? Yes. We don't want something too small. You wanted something that was spacious? Yes. When you say spacious, what does that mean to you? Did you want one bedroom, two bedrooms, three bedrooms? Yes. We wanted something like 3-4 bedrooms. 3-4 bedrooms. What about outdoor space? Did you want a garden or somewhere outdoor? Yes. We wanted something where there is a little bit of outdoor where we can do a bit of barbecue fam. You wanted an outdoor area? Okay. What about sound? Was the fact that it was quiet important to you? Yes. So you wanted somewhere that was quiet. Yes. What about sunlight? Yes. That's important. Did it have to have natural light? Absolutely. My mum always says has to have natural light. You need natural lights? Yes. Natural light. Was there anything else that was important? What else was important? Was price important? Yeah. It has to be something where we can afford. Now if it's too expensive, it doesn't matter. If we have all of this and you can't afford it, then there's no point. Absolutely. Somewhere where you could afford. What else? Was there anything else that was important? Didn't matter whether it was on one story or two stories? No. That wasn't important? That wasn't important. What about the type of house? Whether it was brick or whetherboard, was that important? Yes, we wanted brick. You wanted brick? Yeah. Previously we had a board house. So it definitely had to be brick? Yeah. Out of this list that you've compiled here. What was the most important out of all of those things, location, amenities, house, spacious? Amenities. Really? Yeah. You wanted somewhere where it was lively, where you had a community. So that was number one. What was the second most important do you think? Location. Location? Yeah. Okay, great. What was the third most important? Probably the spaciousness. Spaciousness? Yes. If I gave you a spacious apartment next to amenities in a great area, would you have been okay? Yeah. So you would have taken an apartment over a house if it had the other things? I see. No, we want a house. This where it gets really interesting, because they're not even aware of what their priorities are. House is probably number three. You're right. The fact that it's a house. Yes. What about number four? I think affordability would be next. Number four?. Yes. What about if it was in a noisy area? Would that have been a problem or not really? Probably not as important. Let's choose our fifth one before we look at the next part of the exercise. So location, amenities, house, the price. What about the size? Because you came from a place that was quite small. Yes? That's right. I'll probably put that number five I suspect. That it was spacious? Yeah. Let put that as number five. Great. Thank you. Good work. Now what you will find is not only have we worked out what his values are, we've worked out what order those values are in, then we could certainly go and have a look and see what those values mean. For example, what really does location mean? How close to the university does he have to be? We could look at what spacious really means. How many square meters is important for him, what different areas he wants in the house? We could have a look at price. What does affordability mean to him, because affordability to you and affordability to Lawrence may be two completely different things. But what we're going to find out now is that values change over time, so you can never assume that you know the values of your claim. Lawrence, can I ask you, can you remember the first place you lived in when you first moved out of home? Yes. A long time. A long time ago. Yes. I was staying in an apartment. You were staying in an apartment. What was important to you when you chose that first location? It has to be within walking distance to the university. So location was still very important? Yes. What else was important? Did it have to be a house or an apartment, or it didn't matter? It didn't matter. Was space important? You needed a really big room? No. No, not important at all? Not important at all. We've already crossed off house and space. What about being close to amenities? Did that matter? No. Not important at all? Not important at all. Location. What about price or affordability? Yeah. That one is important. So put in price. Price was important. What else was important to you? Did it have to be quiet? No. Did it have to have outdoor space? No. What about natural light? No. No natural. Did it matter whether it was brick or weatherboard? No. So location and price were really important. Did it matter who you were living with at that point? Yeah. It was important? We're not going to go any further at this point in time. But as you can see, Lawrence's values around where he lives has changed radically over time. Each time you approach your client, you want to find out what do they value, what order are those values in, and what do those values mean. The more understanding you have about what they value, the easier it is to make an offer that fits exactly within those values. Then they can't do anything but accept. Thanks, Lawrence. Thank you.
