Listing Agent Alert: Do You Remember How to Work With Buyers?

It’s not as if listings were a dime-a-dozen over the past few years. You worked your rear end off to even generate seller leads, let alone actually list them.

Sellers had it so easy – fielding multiple offers and selling lightning-fast and for major bucks.

But the times they are a-changin’, and you may need to dip a toe or two into the buyer pool in the future.

It naturally depends on if increases in inventory outpace demand. And, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that could happen to impact that scenario.

Just in case the “experts” are correct in assuming we’re headed for a buyers’ market; do you remember how to work with them? Let’s take a crash, refresher course.

 “Buyers are liars” – or are they?

Sure, it’s a common saying since real estate agent caveman (and women) days, but it’s still creepy.

First, don’t we all pretty much lie when we’re thinking of buying anything? Think about it: you may know exactly what you want when you walk into Macy’s.

Even when you can’t locate the item or even which department it’s located in, you’ll tell a salesperson that no, you don’t need help, because you’re “just looking.”

Americans, by and large, don’t like salespeople. We don’t trust them.

When will real estate agents get it that the vast majority of consumers consider you salespeople? Every year when that “most disrespected” professions list comes out real estate agents rank among the most despised.

Yeah, it sucks, because we know better – we love you. But they don’t know you, so don’t take it personally. Again, people don’t like being sold to (which is why used car salespeople rank on that list every year as well).

So, when a buyer tells you that he or she isn’t “ready” yet or is “just looking,” it’s not fair to think of him as a liar.

Your best defense here is to do everything in your power to banish the perception of real-estate- agents-as-sharks. Take off the sales and promotion hat for starters.

Buyers are time and labor-intensive

Listing agents have it made. Breeze in, get a signature on the contract, stick a sign in the front yard and let all the town’s buyers’ agents sell the home.

Yeah, I know, that’s pretty simplistic and not entirely realistic, but you have to admit that a listing agent’s job (especially if he or she is good at it) is a whole lot easier than a buyers’ agent.

While other agents are working on selling your listing, you’re out taking more of them.

Compared to listing clients, buyers are time and labor-intensive. And first-time buyers will gobble more of your time than repeat buyers.

The key to saving some of your precious hours is by putting the proper systems in place:

• Prepare a buyers’ consultation that nails it. Create handouts or website content that walks the buyer through the process, step-by-step and answers every possible question he or she could have.
• Consider creating in-depth buyer guides – one for How to Buy a Fixer, How to Buy a Newly Constructed Home, How to Buy a Waterfront Home, How to Buy a Home on a Septic or well or whatever.
• And, don’t forget Mortgage 101 guides on the various government-backed loan programs.
• Get your preferred vendors lined up so you won’t waste time trying to round up a lender or home inspector or contractor for your buyers.
• Stick all these valuable guides on your real estate website to make it even easier for buyers to access them. Education is power (and a time-saver for you).

These things not only provide a better client experience but save you time in the long run.

Buyers have totally unrealistic expectations

Don and Joan want to buy a condo in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. High on the wish list is panoramic views “We need lots of natural light, low fees and on-site amenities, such as a gym, pool, and a pet spa,” Joan said.

Don chimes in with some of his must-haves: “We also really want heated floors, a gourmet kitchen with granite countertops, a wine cooler, and a walk-in pantry,” he says.

“We would love a media room, a sauna, and a fireplace in the master bedroom. Our lender says we can pay up to $250,000,” adds Joan.

Yes, uneducated home buyers tend to be unrealistic. Sadly, when Don and Joan actually lay eyes on what that $250k will buy them (it won’t be in Beacon Hill, where the lowest-priced home right now is $1.5 million), they’ll be crushed.

Although “buyers are unrealistic” may be an accurate statement, whose fault is it? They don’t, after all, work in the real estate market every day so naturally, they don’t understand it.

It’s why the pros create a buyers’ consultation

Back to that, again, huh? A consultation should be the backbone of every real estate agent’s buyer’s system.

With the market potentially changing, as a listing agent, you’ll also be facing unrealistic expectations from your listing clients. They will no longer have the luxury of demanding top dollar for homes that need work.

2020 is going to be an interesting year in real estate.

Send at least 100 Considering a Move postcard from the Move-Up Market Series to an area where you want more listings.