St. George Utah Real Estate

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Most MLS systems today provide some kind of daily report of recent listing activity. It shows expirations, new, withdrawn, under contract, sold listings, as well as price changes. When working with buyers, it is imperative that a real estate agent know the market thoroughly and watch these reports on a daily basis.

1. New Listings that Fit Your Buyers' Requirements

It's quite important to bring new appropriate listings to the attention of your buyer clients as soon as they come on the market. In fast moving markets, it's critical.
It would be most unfortunate for a buyer to miss the perfect property and purchase another just because you missed a new entry into the market. Watch new listings carefully and match them to your buyers' requirements.

2. Status Changes Can be Important Too

If your buyers have expressed some level of interest in certain homes, should those properties come off the market for some reason, you need to let them know.
If expired, ask if they'd like you to pursue information as to whether the property will be re-listed or not. Of course, if a property goes under contract, your role is one of information only in most cases. At least this information may provide motivation for your buyer clients and get them into a more serious mode.

3. Price Changes Can be Extremely Important

Suppose you have buyers who are looking for a home up to $250,000. You have brought listings to their attention including homes up to about $259,000. You check the recent activity report and find a home that was listed at $269,000 now dropped to $259,000. You definitely want to bring this home to the attention of your buyers. They may have known about it already, but assumed it out of their reach.
You could be the heroine here and get a contract with enthusiastic buyers who perceive a great bargain in this home.

We're looking at the qualification of buyers here in two contexts. First, we want to try to determine their real estate wants and needs in relation to their financial capability. Second, we want to determine our level of involvement in working with them based on a number of factors, including their urgency.

If you're really hungry, perhaps any buyer with a pulse is worth your time and resources. However, many an agent has been burned out early because they used up their money, time and enthusiasm on buyer prospects who were not motivated at all. It's OK to be selective in your business as to who you work with.

If it's an internet buyer, the criteria change significantly:

Most of this discussion is about a buyer that's sitting in front of us and ready to go look at properties. However, the game is quite different if it's an internet buyer prospect. Time frames stretch, as internet buyers start their searches much earlier and spend more time in research. If you dismiss or procrastinate in serving a web buyer prospect because they say they will be buying in a "year or so", you'll probably not work with many. You'll also lose a lot of business in the future. Proper information delivery systems via email and the web should be set up so that you can work with these buyers over time.

Financial qualification in the context of market and property types:

None of us want to spend our time and vehicle expense with buyers who are unable financially to purchase the properties they're being shown. That said, there are a huge number of variables in play here. If you work in a market with a lot of first-time buyers, you will be well-served to try to get them to get a mortgage pre-qualification letter. They might not even know what they can or cannot afford. If you work in a resort, vacation or luxury market, you may not want to take that approach for fear of annoying the buyers. You might find an internet search and polite questions about their business helpful.

Motivation and urgency could be important to you:

Again, if you're hungry, you might show properties to buyers who appear less-than-motivated in their real estate search. Sometimes, due to fear of sales pressure, buyers will use an unconcerned attitude to mask a really high interest in finding a property. Asking questions and getting them comfortable with you might clarify their intentions. If it's clear to you that they have no intention of making a purchase in the near future, you need to decide how much time you want to spend with them. Though you may lose them, you can print up listings for them to drive by or do open houses.

Sometimes referral is the best approach:

If buyers are looking outside of your normal service area, or they are in the market for properties with which you have little experience, you might find it advisable to refer them to an agent better suited to work with them. Perhaps your web site gets a prospect to you that wants property in your MLS, but a 50 minute drive across town, you may find it better for your time and expense to refer them to an agent in that area. Perhaps they're looking for commercial property and you're inexperienced in that area. It would definitely be better to refer them out in this case.

If you just don't get a good feeling about a prospect, think about it:

You've just met a buyer prospect in your office and they spend the first fifteen minutes of the conversation relating bad experiences with other agents. Or they tell you how they've always been mistreated in previous real estate dealings. These could be clients who will end up plaintiffs. If you're getting a bad feeling, pay attention to it, as it could keep you out of court in the future.

1. The Buyer is Assured of Your Best Efforts

If a buyer might be working with multiple agents, or they're out cruising the open houses, you are at risk of losing them at any time. It's only logical that you would have a significantly higher level of comfort with a representation agreement, and thus you'd be willing to spend more time and effort in scouring the market for the right properties for your buyer clients.
To help you put this in front of your buyer prospect in a positive way, you might say that you do pre-showing drive-by of properties for your agreement clients. Due to the time and expense requirements, you're unable to offer this to non-clients.

2. Your Buyer Representation Clients are Exposed to Every Eligible Property

This is a big one for them. If this doesn't get them into the mode to sign the agreement, then nothing else is likely to do so. This might also indicate a less-than-serious buyer.
Basically, "Mr. & Mrs. Buyers, I am aware of some properties that might possibly meet your requirements but are not listed in the MLS. I feel it's in your best interests, and my duty, to look for FSBO properties that you might want to see. But we'll need to agree that I'll get paid a minimum commission if one of these properties turns out to be the right one for you. You can negotiate its payment as part of the transaction."

3. Last, But Not Least, You Get Paid for Sure

This one is for your mental and financial comfort level. It's a whole lot nicer going to the office each day knowing that you'll be showing properties to buyers who are serious enough to guarantee that you'll get paid. There's also that better feeling you'll get knowing that you were able to show them all the homes that met their requirements, as well as having them well-informed as to their choices in representation. It's not fun having a buyer ask you after a purchase why they didn't see the home three streets over at a better price.