REAL ESTATE B-SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Buyer Client Servicing Do's and Don'ts

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Transcript:

The intent of this session is to really get clear on helping buyers come to a conclusion as quickly as possible on a home to purchase. I've had agents on my team sell more than 50 homes, and it's taken me a good amount of work to get them through this process. Make sure you or your agents have a thoughtful process to lead clients to get the right home, and to be able to step up and tell clients when they're looking at homes they don't need to be looking at.

Understanding Client Needs

You want to thoroughly understand your buyer clients' needs and wants. If you're crystal clear on exactly what they need, you're able to go back to that when, for instance, they want to look at their 36th home or if they start asking to look at homes that don't match what they told you they need. You need to be crystal clear and be able to draw back to the time they told you that. Any time you go out more than two or three times and they don't buy a property, you need to sit back down with them and make sure you're on the right track — because you really want to do a good job for them.

I always prepared for all showing appointments rather than haphazardly going out. I would print out buyer showing packets. I'd have a simple cover page that said, "Buyer Preview Tour," the date, my contact information, and asking for referrals. I simply printed that with a map of the properties we were going to go look at, and an MLS print-out of each property.

So it had a map, a print-out, and a cover page. If it was a husband and wife, I'd print out two of them. If it was a husband, wife, and a mother, I'd print out three. We showed up at the first house, I handed out the preview packets, and it made a big difference in terms of my level of professionalism. I highly recommend you do that.

Keep the Momentum Going

At the end of each showing ask your client what they liked, what they didn't like, and if this is the right home for them. Even if you know it's not the right home for them, you want to condition them to get used to, outside every home, evaluating what they liked and didn't like. It's going to help you know if you're on track or not. And they're going to know after every home if this is the right one or not.

You want them to realize that we're out to buy a home, not just look at homes. At the end of each outing, make sure you get the next showing appointment time and date set. You want to keep the pressure on — not in a negative way — but you want to keep momentum going. It's just like a listing, and you should envision it that way. Time on market, even buyer's time on market, is not a good thing. You want to be able to sign them as a client and get them under contract as quickly as possible. You want to capitalize on the natural momentum that's built up in the process.

You really want to give your buyer permission to make an offer on the home that they like. A lot of times, I've even heard agents say this to their buyer clients, they may like the third home they see, but an agent will tell them they haven't looked at as many homes as they need to yet. The agents have their own perception that you have no look at 15-20 homes to buy one.

You want to tell your clients that you scoured through hundreds if not thousands of homes. When we open our MLS up, ours has 23,000 actives. So you've scoured through thousands of homes to pick the ones you're looking at that day. We went from 22,000 to 500 to 100 to 20 to 12, and you may give them that list of 12. Every time you add a different list of criteria, you're culling down the list. You may give them those 12 to drive by before you even let them into properties.

Talk about it out loud. Say, "Many of my clients find their home in the first couple times out. Don't be surprised if you find the perfect home today." Just say it conversationally. You're out there to sell a property. They told you what they want and what they need, and you know the market, so you can help guide them into the right property.