DISC Personality Types and How to Lower Real Estate Stress
While there are lots of different personality type assessments out there, the DISC assessment is a tool that can provide great insight for what your personality type needs in order to feel comfortable with buying or selling a home. Buying or selling a home is a huge financial decision and is a process that can be filled with a lot of stressors. Better understanding your needs during this process will help immensely when faced with moments of uncertainty.
To get started, you’ll first need to know your personality type. In the DISC assessment, there are just four. The four types come down to two distinctions:
1. How active or passive you are; and
2. Whether you tend to be more task or people oriented.
People can be a combination of the four or fall higher or lower on a continuum, but for the purposes of this exercise, we want to understand your most dominate type as this will give you the insight you need so that you can have the best buying or selling experience possible.
Active vs. Passive
An active person will tend to be future oriented and focused on how things could be. They will tend to be more animated and assertive when they speak and be better about maintaining strong eye contact. When such a person meets with their Realtor, they could be enthusiastically talking about their next home and the plans they have for once they move in. A passive person tends to be more present and past oriented. They tend to have a calmer and quieter demeanor and are less likely to maintain eye contact. When such a person meets with a Realtor, they could be talking about what they appreciate about their current home or school district or talking about what kind of monthly expenses they hope to maintain.
Task vs. People Oriented
A task-oriented person tends to put work first. They will want to get down to business with making decisions or doing research. A people-oriented person will prefer to develop relationships first before getting down to work. These types of people will likely value developing relationships as they know it can greatly influence the process or experience at hand and thus be more willing to take the time to establish an emotional connection with their agent or lender.
Below is a chart to show you how each of the four personality types land on these two different scales. See if you can identify yourself among the four options. If you are still unsure, here is a great, free test you can quickly take.
Now that you have identified your most dominant personality type, I want to show you what you need to know so that you can bring as much ease and enjoyment to the buying or selling process as possible. Keep in mind that there is no perfect or right way to buy or sell a house. It doesn’t matter what people before you have done. There is just the way that works for you. If you find yourself feeling bogged down thinking that a home must fit all of the logical criteria in a spreadsheet, do yourself a favor and relieve yourself of this false mental burden now. A home might not have to make perfectly logical sense on paper in order to be the right home for you. Conversely, if you find yourself making an offer on a home that does look good on your spreadsheet but that does not make you swoon, there is nothing wrong with that either if matching up with the criteria on the spreadsheet is what matters most to you. Depending on your personality type, the right home for you is going to be the one that fills you with a sense of confidence, elation, serenity, or stability. Read on to figure out what’s right for you.
Dominant Personality Type
If you are a D personality type, the real estate process can be fun provided it doesn’t drag on too long. Dominant types tend to be the most comfortable operating in new territory and enjoy making decisions; of which there are many to make. To keep yourself from losing steam, it’s important to focus on creating checklists so you have a way to measure productivity and know what is required of you next. D types like to keep things moving forward and although the real estate process can sometimes take awhile to complete, having checklists and staying forward looking will help keep your spirits up. So for instance, perhaps the right house has yet to come along or your finances are not yet in a place where you can buy a home. If you’re in this situation, focus on what steps you need to take; anything that is within your realm of control. If you are trying to sell your home and a buyer has yet to come along or a deal fell through, ask your agent what you can do to keep the process moving forward. There are always a number of steps you can take. In this same vein, it is also important to focus on solutions, not problems, as much as you can. Focusing exclusively on problems can increase anxiety. So for example, if the house inspection came back with a number of issues, work with your agent to identify solutions and start to implement an inspection resolution strategy.
For D types, their biggest fear tends to be being taken advantage of. While you don’t need an agent who gives you warm fuzzies, it is extremely important that you have an agent you can absolutely trust. You want to be confident that your agent understands your concerns and will always go to bat to be sure you are getting the best deal.
Influence Personality Type
If you are an I type, it is important that the real estate process be fun. Transactions are full of minutiae and deadlines that need to be met, which can drag an I type down if that is the only experience being had. When you begin the process of buying or selling a house, consider how to get off on the right foot, which for you will involve starting with people, not facts. To keep yourself engaged and feeling confident, you’ll want to work with an agent that you really enjoy and involve friends or family in the process too as much as you can.
When considering where you’re moving to, think about what you’ll enjoy in your next home. Are you hoping to live near friends? Do you need a guest house so family can visit? Are you hoping to have a large deck and pool so you can host parties all summer long? Whatever you are hoping to achieve lifestyle wise, keep this point front and center throughout the process. Not only will it help you realize the right house when you find it, it will also help keep your spirits up through a potentially long process.
Despite many to-dos, you’ll want to focus on what next immediate action you can take and have those actions be a collaborative process if you can. An ideal back and forth with your agent would be to frequently discuss in person or over the phone what steps you ought to next take. If the home buying or selling process starts to stall, consider what you can do to keep moving forward in a fun way. Perhaps you can try out a new restaurant in your ideal neighborhood or invite some friends over to help you pack and enjoy the pool one more time. You might even enjoy finding a new piece of art or furniture for your next home as a way to inject some fun into the process.
For I types, their biggest fear is not being liked. While being liked shouldn’t stop you from successfully buying or selling a home, what is important is to manage whatever might be a stressor for you. The more you have an agent you adore or a good friend who is happy to support you throughout the ride, the more the real estate process can be a tolerable or even enjoyable experience. Focus on the fun and you’ll go much further.
Conscientiousness Personality Type
The C type tends to love details, data, and structure. The real estate process can be a great opportunity to bring these strengths into play. Let your detailed mind have fun by building spreadsheets, pouring over the blueprints of a new build, or mapping out the best plan for generating a return on investment with a flip or income property. If there is any part of the process that intrigues you, allow yourself time to dive in. You might find yourself enjoying the opportunity to gain new knowledge. If you fear taking too long in making a decision but enjoy gathering information and comparing and contrasting things like neighborhoods or home layouts, don’t worry about this. Let yourself take all the time you need to invest in this part of the process because usually in real estate, when the times comes to make a decision, things move fast, especially when in a sellers’ market. When the time to move fast arises, you will be much more comfortable with the process if you have your spreadsheets and prior research to draw on to feel confident about the quick decision you are about to make.
During the real estate process, you’ll want to stay as organized as you can. Know what steps you are going to take when and what details you need to know in order to be on top of each step. Your agent should be your resource for getting your mind wrapped around the buying or selling process. For example, when it comes time to shop for a loan, know what paperwork you are going to need to have and what costs you are going to need to compare and contrast from each lender in order to get the best deal. The more you can know what details to dive into, the more empowered and in control you are going to feel throughout the process. You will also be able to have a sense that you are making progress throughout the transaction.
When it comes to choosing a real estate agent, make sure you feel confident that you have chosen an agent who will provide you with the level of detail you need. You want an agent who can dive into the details, send you analyses, and answer any and all of your hard questions. An agent who keeps veering off from answering your data driven questions and turns to idle chit-chat is probably not going to be the kind of agent who will help you feel comfortable during the process. At the end of the day, you’ll want to feel confident about the big financial decision you are making. An agent who can help you fill in the detail to your questions is someone who will be a great fit for you and help you keep your stress levels low.
Steadiness Personality Type
A S type tends to be the most resistant to change and thus a real estate transaction can feel like an exceptionally stressful event. But knowing this about yourself will already give you a leg up in the process. To feel as comfortable with the process as possible, you will absolutely want an agent who you feel is trustworthy and puts your needs above their own priorities. Knowing what to predict throughout the process is going to also really help you stay comfortable. The more you can get your agent to tell you upfront what to expect each step of the way or point you to resources that will explain this for you, the more doable the process will begin to feel. Never hesitate to ask your agent the same questions twice or ask for more detail. Let your agent know that you would like for them to regularly spell out what they need from you on a day-to-day or weekly basis. The more you can have an easy and consistent dialogue with your agent and keep your to-dos in bite size chunks, the less stressful this process is going to feel.
As you approach the real estate process, allow yourself to stay focused on the present or immediate future. You don’t have to deal with step ten when you are at step one or two. Trust that with a good agent and lender, you will be taken care of and informed each step of the way so that nothing will be missed. For now, you only need to focus your attention on today’s task or preparing for tomorrow’s to-do. If you’re concerned about something being missed, ask you agent, “what do you need me to do this week or over the next few days?” You can ask the same question again the next week and know that you will methodically move through the process and get to your end goal. You don’t have to be the expert. That’s why you’ve hired one.
If you’re buying a house with a partner, talk through what each of you can do so you have a sense that there is a high degree of collaboration throughout the process. This will help you feel secure and enjoy the process much more than if you felt that you were doing this whole thing on your own. If you are buying or selling on your own, see if a friend or family member can help you with some of the steps like touring a neighborhood or packing up boxes. Make sure you have an agent that feels like a collaborative partner rather than one who just expects you to work mostly on your own.
Since change tends to be the biggest fear for a S type, it can be helpful to regularly think about how this move is going to add stability to your life. Take time to remember from time-to-time why you are doing this and what your life will be like once the transition is completed. Just checking in with this reminder and the feeling it will evoke can be a wonderful tool for recharging your mental and emotional batteries and keeping you engaged in the process. If you can keep a visual reminder out of where you are moving to and spend time to look at the new listings and imagine how you will feel in that environment, it is a great thing to do before getting down to whatever to-dos need to be taken care of for the day. Getting yourself emotionally on board for the day can keep you energized.
Conclusion
I hope this overview and insight into each personality type has given you ideas about what you can do to manage your stress, have fun, and determine which agent is right for you. Buying or selling a home can be a big point of transition in life but it can also be a great experience for helping you realize new dreams. Below is a link to download a cheat sheet of the information above. Please share it with family and friends if you think they may benefit too.
Happy buying and selling!
