Buying or selling a house -- or at least the decision to do so -- is fraught with emotional bombshells. As you approach the prospects of buying your next home or investment property or selling either, for that matter, keep in mind that you're about to go through a Grand Canyon of emotional ups and downs.

One sales training website I came across says, "People buy products to gain emotional rewards and justify buying with logical reasons. Your ad copy must trigger emotion(s) that will persuade your prospects to buy your product."

Having spent a few years in various sales positions, I can tell you the above is very true. The reason people buy a lot of products is because of the emotional factor. A University of Florida study on emotions and their effects on the buying process, headlined that "Americans More Likely to Let Their Emotions Do the Buying." The study contends that "emotions were nearly twice as important as knowledge in buying decisions."

In fact, sales training courses have techniques, such as the Embarrassment Close, where the sales person makes the consumer feel embarrassed for not buying. The Emotion Close is designed to trigger identified emotions that push consumers into signing the bottom line. Sales Training University even has a course entitled: "Emotional Response Marketing - The Key To Producing Results."

Where do you stand with your emotions in the process?

It's not that emotions have no place in the real estate purchase process. I'm as guilty as any other American consumer of buying because I liked the way a product appealed to my pride, sense of image, or even covetous desires to just have more than the Joneses. So don't think you're going to be able to buy a house with an emotionless stoicism to ensure your decision is only logical. In fact, it shouldn't be just logical.

If we all purchased homes based on what was logical -- we would be living in the most basic property that met our basic needs. Besides, the 1,200 square foot, $200,000 condo protects me from the elements as much as the 8,500 square foot, $2 million estate. Thus, there's somewhere in the middle where you should aim your buying arrow.

The UF study pointed out "marketers should focus more on understanding how to connect with their audiences on emotional as well as intellectual levels," and encouraged buyers to understand what is going on with themselves emotionally as they make a decision -- especially on big-ticket items.

Frankly, part of the real estate frenzy of the last several years was purely emotional driven. Yes, a lot of money was to be made in the hottest of markets, however, it was the emotional high from believing in the instant riches that would follow the purchase that got more people into real estate than the fact that it is a good investment. Real estate investing has always been a great investment. What's interesting is that any investment expert will tell you to buy low and sell high on your assets -- not buy high and sell higher. But the emotional exuberance of buying a house with a $25,000 deposit and flipping it in 6 months to the tune of a $100,000 profit, continued driving prices up and markets hotter.

Now that the markets have returned to normal -- the commonsense investor and home buyer can really profit from approaching the transaction from a left-brain, number-crunching approach, balanced with the emotional joy of owning a really nice house.

As you walk through houses for sale, the old hand agents will still tell you, "You'll just know when you've walked into 'your' house." And they are exactly right. The commonsense side of the decision is: can I afford it, does it meet within our financial limitations? (The logical approach.) Meanwhile, there should be the balance of: "Wow … this is the place because I feel at home." (The emotional response.)

And with that, I'll leave you with a totally emotional greeting: Good luck and happy buying.

Published: March 3, 2006

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.