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Encounters With Owners

You will probably meet the owners on one of your visits. As all of you stand around feeling awkward, watch carefully for non-verbal communication among homeowning family members. Did Daughter blush when Dad say the tap water was fit to drink? The owners may offer coffee or a soda, but watch out if you're offered alcoholic beverages. They could be trying to blunt your powers of observation and resolve. Beer, wine and sherry, of course, do not count as alcoholic beverages.

Be as charming as you can when you meet the owners. Remember, your goal is to make them divulge the worst secrets of the house and then let you have it for a fraction of what it's worth just because they like you so much. Failing this, you want to undermine their confidence in he value of their home. Do this by pointing out obscure problems in the form of compliments.

Example: "I love the way you've handled the space in the living room. It makes the room look so much bigger than it really is."

Caveat: Never suggest that anything is wrong with the taste of the owners, even if there are acrylic fur seat covers on all the toilets and a portrait of Elvis over the hearth with eyes that follow you around the room.

This Tip was excerpted from:
The House Trap, by Alfred Gingold, Workman Publishing, 1988.
ISBN# 0-89480-615-7

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