Hangry Hour
on decision making in the home search process
What advertising campaign just works for you? I can easily list my least favorite ad campaigns (State Farm and Progressive insurance,1 Coors Light,2 those car ads where someone gives a car in the driveway wrapped in a bow3...). My “most hated ads” list is long, no doubt. But there are a few ad campaigns that I absolutely love. For some reason, the Corona “find your beach” ads do it for me. Anything Geico produces cracks me up. But Snickers has to take the cake.
Can you remember where you first heard the word “hangry?” The OED points to 1910 as the earliest occurrence of the word. I have my doubts, as that predates my recognition of the word by about 105 years. And I feel like if it was common, Snickers would have used it in their ads. “Hangry” says in one word what the Snickers slogan does in six (“You’re not you when you’re hungry”).
4-6PM is my prime Hangry Hour. I remember being told when I was young that snacking at that time would “spoil my dinner,” but I actually have found the opposite: if I don’t snack before dinner, I am so grumpy by the time I sit down to eat that my dinner is, in a different sense, spoiled. With such low blood sugar, I’ll be so irksome and irritable towards Hana that we’re climbing uphill emotionally to get back to a pleasant conversation space during the meal.
Home Tours in Hangry Hour
You know what else frequently gets scheduled for the 4-6pm window? Home tours! For many of my clients, the best time to schedule home showings is after they get off of work, which coincides with Hangry Hour. I’ve therefore added granola bars to my home tour kit, alongside things like a moisture meter or measuring tape. Hey Snickers, consider this my public request for me to become your first sponsored Realtor! I’d gladly sport a Snickers-branded fanny pack full of candy bars if it meant my clients and I were less hangry while making one of the most important decisions of their lives.
HALT - Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Someone once gave me the advice to not have major conversations or make significant decisions while hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. Brilliant advice! Unfortunately, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that I’m pretty frequently in at least one of these states. And most of the time, I don’t even notice it until I’ve snapped or quipped at someone and ruined the vibe. So I guess this advice has to begin, instead, with actually noticing when I’m Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired first -- and then having the presence of mind to do something about it. Ironically, being hangry hinders my awareness of how hangry I am. Even in the Snickers ads, our protagonists need someone else to point out that they’re not themselves and hand them a snack.
Towards eliminating the HALT experience from home tours, I also endorse mindfulness training apps such as Headspace and Calm. I’ve not used Calm, but use Headspace most mornings. I find it helps me get better at noticing when I’m hangry. So then, in addition to being open to a Snickers sponsorship, consider this also a public declaration of interest in a Headspace sponsorship. Hey Headspace! If you’re reading this, sponsor ya boy! Or more seriously: perhaps I should pay for my clients’ subscriptions to Headspace. Hmm.
The perfect home tour
All of this is to say: our state of mind has considerable influence over our decision making process -- especially when it comes to choosing a home. Deciding where to live is a monumental decision, one built on a long string of hidden smaller decisions that add up to one visible verdict. Our minds and hearts are complex ecosystems swirling with different influences from cognitive bias, blood sugar, shame, fear, aesthetic preference, finances, etc...
So what would the perfect home tour look like? Will the right home feel so right as to overcome a bad mood during the tour? Is it possible to decide on a home to purchase after just one visit? Is visiting a home on a rainy or sunny day preferable? What’s the maximum number of homes one should tour in a single session? What are best practices for bringing kids along? What kind of snack is best? How can we tell when we’ve had a false positive or false negative verdict on a home?
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing and posting about this topic: decision making in the home search. I’ve been reading and researching on this topic for a loooong time, and now it’s time to write up what I’ve found and share it.4 If you know of someone who might be especially apt to interview on this topic, let me know! Maybe this will become an interview podcast too. Next week, we’ll get started looking at cognitive biases in the home search process.
Decision making is hard in any situation, and only moreso around such a consequential fork-in-the-road context like home shopping. What advice would you offer someone in the market for a house right now?
What Wes is into
Les Fleurs, by Minnie Riperton. Did you know she wrote the melody to “Lovin’ You” as a lullaby to her daughter? Did you know her daughter is Maya Rudolph?!
The Wire, season 4. I’ll be honest: I’ve never watched this season before. Every time I’ve tried to watch the show, I’ve gotten so sad and down that I can’t continue. I’m actually committing to it now, because it’s a vital work that has *serious* resonance with areas in which I work. Kensington and West Baltimore have much in common. I’m also on the board of New Kensington Community Development Corporation, and feel like a 6th season of The Wire could be written about how churches and non-profits relate to neighborhoods like Kenzo and West Baltimore.
Kalaya, a sensational Thai restaurant in Fishtown. Hana’s family is in town this week, and we were able to snag a dinner reservation a few nights ago. I can’t understate how surprising this meal was. Thai food has, for better or for worse, carved out a solid reputation in American food culture — pad thai, tom yum soup, etc. But Kalaya was totally fresh and unexpected, and I deeply appreciate that. A+, 10/10, worth every penny, would eat again!
Thanks for reading!
Wes
So smug and unfunny, yet they act like they’re being relatable and funny.
“Cold as the Rockies!” It’s just dumb to advertise the one aspect of your product that you can’t control -- its temperature.
Either unrealistic or elitist or unwise, take your pick.
Of course, if you don’t already follow me on Instagram or TikTok, please do! I’m @homegandalf. I’ll post reels summarizing my insights there.