The best real estate agents are like financial advisors. They must gather all of the pertinent information and then advise their buyers or sellers by sharing that information to help their clients manage financial and emotional risks. Unfortunately, most agents never get around to gathering all of the facts. Subsequently, the recommendations being made by the agent can be half-baked and inaccurate. An agent that allows the lack of information to impair their client’s ability to make the best decision, is an agent that shouldn’t be giving real estate advise.
How can you avoid giving poor advise to your clients? There are several areas that should be considered:
- You must have a deep understanding of market conditions, especially as they relate to the specific area or neighborhood.
- You must have a strong knowledge of existing inventory within the specific area.
- You must completely understand your buyers and seller personal situations relative to their goals and objections.
Listed below are general questions about areas that should always be covered, to ensure your recommendations are top shelf. You must ask yourself, “What do you know about:”
- Their family?
- Their occupation?
- What they like to do when they’re not working?
- Their financial situation?
- Their plans for the future?
- Their price range?
- Their down payment?
- Their credit history?
- Their real estate holdings?
- Whether they’ve been pre-approved for financing?
- Whether anyone else will be involved in the purchase?
- How long they have lived at their previous address?
- How long they want to keep the home?
- What they liked or didn’t like about their previous home?
- Why they want to buy a home?
- Why they purchased their previous home?
- What they liked or didn’t like about their previous neighborhood?
- Why they like or want to move to the area?
- If there will be anyone else involved in the purchase?
- Who will be living in or visiting the home?
- What it would mean if they were to buy today?
- If they would be willing to make a decision immediately, if they found the right property?
- Whether there are any contingencies or special circumstances involved in the purchase?
- Whether they plan on using money from the sale of an existing property or other asset?
- If they have seen any homes or neighborhoods they really like, and why they like them?
- When they last worked with another real estate agent?
- How long they have been looking?
- What made them decide to contact you?
- What they know about you?
- What they didn’t like about homes, neighborhoods or any other areas they have visited?
- What they know about or how they perceive your Company?
If you don’t know the answer to all of these questions, you run the risk of not only giving bad advice that could harm your reputation, you also run the risk of spending a great deal of wasted time on low priority buyers. In the future, you must recognize that being well-prepared isn’t just doing your homework about the area and listing inventory. It also means doing your homework and knowing everything about your buyer.