I want you feeling confident in your ability to finalize contracts and to see them CLOSE! You deserve every bit of success you work for. Here are a few things you can do to PREVENT buyer’s remorse and to keep your contracts together:
- Have a proper consultation up front. Many transactions fall apart because the agent doesn’t take the time to educate the buyer on the process and the expectations. Sure buyers think it’s fun to see houses, but there is a lot more to the process than just finding a fit. So, please stop meeting people at houses and START doing your Red Carpet Consultation. You have to earn trust and you can’t do it by just meeting people at a house. If they won’t agree to meet you, you have lost NOTHING and have gained productive hours of time digging up someone who WILL!
- During your consultation, show the buyer a copy of a home inspection. Let him or her see everything an inspector can say about a specific house. This takes the shock out of seeing their own report. (Please black out names and addresses.)
- Have all financial obligations discussed and approved before seeing any house. Have them approved during your Red Carpet Consultation. Then, explain how the mortgage process works. Tell them, just when you think you’ve turned everything in to the mortgage company, they will call you the next day requesting blood samples, extra copies because they lost the ones you already gave, and 5 new things that will be impossible for you to find. Buyers need to hear this. When they go through the process, they take it as “signs” that the underwriter lost something. They start thinking their case must be exceptionally difficult for a reason so they must back out. PROPER PREPARATION!
- Dave Ramsey provides an excellent tip on buyer’s remorse. He said this one tip cut down on 50% of people backing out when he sold real estate. Prepare the buyer for the “aftershock” of finalizing a contract. Tell them, “When you wake up tomorrow, you’re going to ask yourself, what have I done? You’ll have a feeling of panic and desperation. This just means you’re completely normal. This is the largest investment you’ve ever made, if you don’t have these feelings, something could be wrong. So, roll back over and consider yourself normal. It will pass as we go through the process.” Practice the words and explain it during your Red Carpet Consultation.
- Review market conditions. With inventory being low, buyers need to know that they may have to write an offer immediately because multiples are coming. Many buyers still think that sellers are desperate and will take any offer. You are the buyer’s leader. Guide them through the truth. If you don’t tell them in your Red Carpet Consultation, they are likely not going to HEAR you.
- As a listing agent, prepare your seller for the absolute worst offer he can get. Write the net sheet accordingly with paying all buyer’s closing costs and prepaids. And, when you present your offer, tell them how lucky they are to have received one. All success is a result of presentation. If you call your seller and say, “I don’t know what kind of crack these people are smoking, but this agent knows better than to bring us an offer this ridiculous.” What do you think will happen? Even if the buyer comes up to asking price, the seller will be reluctant to agree due to the way it was originally presented.
- As a listing agent, even when you get a finalized contract, please continue to market for a buyer. When one is waiting in the wings, the one falling apart is less painful.
- Answer your phone! If a prospect can’t reach you, you have no chance of converting them into a client. If your client can’t reach you, he will create scenarios in his head of why you aren’t answering, ignoring, etc. Be available or have a communication plan where someone is available if you can’t be. It really does matter. This means reading your email a few times a day (not every 3 days) and checking your voicemail and text messages on scheduled times during the day. One awesome agent told me this week that her key to so much business this year is that she is making an extra effort to ANSWER her phone. It’s the little things that matter most!
Remember, sometimes you can do EVERYTHING right and contracts will still fall apart. Don’t get discouraged. Get back up and dig up another client. Use the face of the people that just burned you to motivate you into finding and closing more business and to working SMARTER not harder.
PLEASE SAVE YOUR MONEY! Put a certain % of each sale aside to pay your future real estate bills. I did it too in my early years of being in the business. I spent every dime and was left tight and desperate during the slow months. It’s human nature to become short sighted and desperate when you have spent all your money and have nothing in the bank. You certainly change your thinking about what actually helps you make money and increases your income. I see agents do it all the time. They will cancel their number one lead conversion source because they can’t afford it. Then, they have to redirect their entire business plan. Sometimes this will even make people quit the business and their 6 figure incomes so they can get a $30,000 position that’s guaranteed (very short-sighted).
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