How Much Time Does It Take
A running theme in real estate is a sense of pride when you can show homes and close a client in a short period of time. How much time does it take to meet a new client, show them homes, and get them to write a contract? That’s the million dollar question. Not everyone is the same. Every situation is different.
I take pride with my team to prepare for a client before they arrive, and have a pretty good idea of what home they’re going to buy before they get here. You know you’re becoming a really good Real Estate agent when you can narrow it down to one to three homes that you think they’re going to buy. Of course, you’re going to show them as many homes as you can to assure value, and you’ve probably been given a list from the buyer that they want to see the following homes.
Here are a few tricks for our system that we use to make the process more efficient.
1) Assess do they want to buy or do they have to buy? Is this a corporate relocation or military move?
2) What is their report date or start date for their new job?
3) Do they have a home to sell?
4) Have they gone through the process of not just getting pre-qualified, but getting qualified and knowing what it will take for them to buy a home in their new city.
5) How much internet shopping have they done? Most of our systems now will allow us to see how many homes they’ve viewed and saved.
6) How active have they been on the website?
7) Have you sent them a relocation packet?
8) Are they receiving listing alerts several months before they arrive?
9) Have they made a realistic list of homes that they want to see that fits the profile of their price range and family needs?
10) Who’s in town shopping? Is it the husband and the wife? Or just the husband or the wife? We have a rule as a team that we will never sell a husband a home without the wife giving her blessing on it, either looking at a high def video or making a trip to town just to ok the decision. Never believe the husband when he says I know my wife and I know what she likes. The funny part is the opposite is the wife does know her husband and does know what he likes.
11) When they arrive in town, are they respectful of your time? Did they arrive on time to their appointment with you? What is the family dynamic? Is it a partnership or a dictatorship? Are the kids present? I’m a proud father of many kids and would never make a decision without my kids involved.
A very important question that you need to know the answer to is what is their mind set on real estate in general? Are they coming from a market where a seller discounts his home by 20%-30%? Are they realistic in looking at the numbers and understanding what the market is and what it will take to buy a home in this market? A lot of the time, either the husband or the wife, most of the time it’s the husband, after looking at homes steps in to the restroom, comes out with a mask and cape on and calls himself Super Negotiator! He’s often saying, “Don’t worry, dear, I’ll take it from here!”
Warning: Kryptonite or a big dose of reality won’t affect this person.
All these factors will determine how much time it will realistically take to get the buyer to contract. If you don’t have answers to the above questions and you try to learn as you go, you’re in for a very long week, weekend or several weeks of home shopping.
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