Keep your buyer clients happy by managing their expectations as you guide them through the process of buying a home.

As a successful Realtor, the majority of your business comes from referrals. So, one of your major responsibilities is keeping clients happy, a task that largely depends on managing their expectations as you guide them through the process of buying a home. Here are a few simple ways to educate and prepare your buyer for a smooth transaction—and one that leads to a glowing referral.

 Motivation:

• With a simple interview, you can set the tone for this transaction. Ask questions that allow you to assess buyers’ motivation and desire to buy. This helps you gauge how often and how much to contact these buyers, as well as how you can help, specifically, meet their current needs.

Affordability:

• Buyers need to know not only what they can afford, but what they really want to spend. These numbers aren’t always the same. As a team, you should identify a low and high price point to work within.

•  Team with a trusted lender for a solid pre-approval before you start showing property. Getting this up front means less chance of lending snags later in the process. It also creates a referral system between you and your lender.

 Type of Property:

•  Many new buyers like the idea of a fixer-upper. Watching HDTV has convinced many a prospective homeowner that home renovation can be accomplished in the space of a half-an-hour TV show. In reality, buyers need to know if they can afford this kind of property. And if you have resources (referrals to contractors, electricians, plumbers, etc.), you can provide a more realistic idea on estimated costs. And again, you set up a reciprocal referral relationship between yourself and these other professionals.

•  Get specific needs/wants up front: number of beds and baths, of course, but also things like stairs or no stairs, school districts, walkability or access to major highways. The more details you get before showing homes, the more likely the ones you see will be a good match, saving all involved time and energy.

•  Manage expectations of available inventory and what buyers can purchase in their price point.

Organization

•  Have a game plan and timeline for the buying process. Though this will shift with each client, it will be enough like other transactions for you to develop a flow-chart template you can tweak and provide to each client. The more they know about the process, the more confident they feel.

• Regularly update your clients: set them up with RMLS reports on available properties, send market updates, and apprise them of any new developments relevant to their home search.

• Coordinate your schedules (yours and the client’s) so your buyer clearly knows how, when, and how often you will tour homes.

• Develop a system that lets buyers take notes, photos, and record questions as they tour. This lets them keep track of properties viewed as well as gives you an avenue for meaningful, regular contact as you obtain answers to their questions on each home.

 Making the Relationship Last

Finally, you want not only this deal, but all future business from these clients.  Ask for referrals throughout the process. Follow up after the transaction with occasional postcards, holiday greetings, phone calls, etc. This way, you make these buyers clients for life.

And, if any of these referrals are outside your preferred price point or property type, ReferralExchange can help you service these prospects!

Millennials want help and advice from a real estate agent, but they bring a greater level of independence to the process than older home buyers or sellers do.

Thanks to social media like Twitter and YouTube, there’s not much today’s Millennial doesn’t have some basic knowledge of. This is true in real estate as well, thanks to the online availability of MLS data, property history, tax info and permit records.  When it comes to searching for a home or researching how to sell one, today’s Millennial is much more in the driver’s seat than buyers in the past.

What holds true for how Millennials search for real estate also holds true in what they’re looking for in an agent.   According to a National Association of Realtors study completed in July, 2013, Millennials do want help from agents, but because they bring a much greater level of independence to the process than older home buyers or sellers do, they are:

• More likely to find the home they plan to purchase via the Internet, while older buyers typically found their first home through their agent.
• More likely to ask friends and family for agent recommendations, whereas older buyers were more interested in an agent’s overall reputations.
• Interested in an agent to help them navigate the process of purchasing a home instead of helping them find the actual home.  Younger sellers typically want their home sold within a specific timeframe.  Both younger buyers and sellers are more likely to choose an agent based on “honesty” and “trustworthiness” vs. neighborhood knowledge and marketing expertise – which is what older buyers and sellers prefer.

As more Millennials enter the real estate market, agents need to keep these trends in mind when doing business with this up and coming group – where the fact that you helped one of their friends buy a trendy loft close to work is more important than your 10+ years of experience and knowledge of neighborhood statistics.  This can be hard to accept, but according to Forbes Magazine, “Millennials {are the}  biggest generation of customers ever (80 million strong in the U.S., which means there are more Millennials than there are baby boomers).” Ultimately, these changes are already here. Adapting your sales and marketing activities to support millennial perspectives will help make you more successful today — and in the future.

Use a second language, other special skills, hobbies, and similarities in past/current clients to focus your marketing efforts and generate more sales!

Last October, Inman news ran a story about how a group of French brokers in Miami had launched a non-profit organization that matches French-speaking Realtors to French-speaking home-buyers interested in purchasing property in the U.S. Even if you don’t speak French, this article likely speaks to you because as a REALTOR®, you recognize the need to find your niche.

The American Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in 2013, around 40,000 real estate agents were actively working in the U.S. The need to stand out then is pretty clear: If you do speak another language, reach out to the local community and offer to provide a home buying seminar in that language.  Be sure to cover any cultural and sales-process differences that might exist in the U.S. vs. other countries.  Having someone who can help navigate the home buying or selling process in another person’s language-of-choice and cultural perspective is definitely an advantage.

Of course, this niche marketing can extend beyond language specialties.  Perhaps you’ve sold several properties to local flight attendants and know where the best “secure condos” can be found close to the local airport. Or, you’re an avid equestrian who understands the type of property that’s needed to build a stable in the backyard.

While not everyone speaks another language, looking at your hobbies and similarities in past/current clients can identify a niche you didn’t even know you had – and generate more sales for you!

Check out these tips to help you stand out from the crowd when someone is looking at multiple properties in one afternoon.

Open houses can be a great way to get new clients, but only if we can stand out from the crowd when someone is looking at multiple properties in one afternoon.

One way to make yourself memorable:  interesting and relevant handouts.  A fancy 4-color, multiple-fold brochure might make your sellers happy, but it’s often the first thing that gets thrown in the recycle bin.

Here then are handout suggestions that while easy to put together, are a unique departure from the standard brochure or buyers guide:

• Mortgage Loan Breakdown – Helps prospects understand the potential costs of financing the property – sometimes, buyers can actually afford more home than they think once they see the monthly payments.  Ask a trusted mortgage broker or mortgage consultant to put a piece together for you – make sure that he/she includes your name on the document as well.
• Glossary of Home Ownership/Mortgage Terms – The home ownership process becomes more complex every year. A single sheet of key terms and phrases can be extremely helpful to both first-time buyers and move-up buyers who haven’t purchased a home in a while.
• Home Buying Process Flowchart– A graphic depiction of how the loan, offer, inspection, repair and title process occur. Your Title Rep, Escrow Officer, or lender may wish to partner with you on such a handout.
• Vendor List – A list of any vendors (include contact information) who helped to fix up the home that’s open – landscapers, painters, etc., can be a great resource sheet.  Including discounts/coupons for mentioning your name to these vendors can help prospects remember who you are when they’re ready to decide on an Agent.  See our blog from 2 weeks ago for more information about this.  
• Neighborhood Information – Note local schools, grocery stores or restaurants and the “walk score” of the home. And don’t forget today’s buyer concerns such as  the best cell phone carrier/coverage for the area (very important in hilly, mountainous and coastal areas).
• Real Estate Agent Checklist/Interview Guide – Selecting the right real estate agent is critical to buying or selling a home, so this checklist identifies key questions to ask an agent.    Click here to download one that you can use.

With these interesting and relevant reference tools, your open house can be more successful:  Not only can they help a prospect remember you, but they can be conversation starters as well!

And, if you have a prospect that comes through your open house who isn’t the right fit for you, or the property that they’re selling is outside your market area, consider using ReferralExchange.  We’ll match your prospect with 3 great agents and pay you a 25% referral fee when the deal closes.  It takes less than 10 minutes to get started.