Three Tips to Create Urgency With Buyers

Tip #1 - Conduct a Consultation - For some reason, I have observed over my
career - going back to 1991...most real estate agents have always
approached working with buyers differently than with a seller.
 With a seller, we make an appointment, go out to meet the
seller at their home and have a meeting - or - we refer to this as
a listing presentation.  However, (and I say for whatever
reason) our industry as a whole doesn’t approach the buyer lead the
same way. Why is that?  Is it just a matter of watching what
others have done and doing the same as what everyone else has seen
people do?  It reminds me of the story…

A young girl was watching her mother bake a ham for a family
gathering and noticed her mom cutting off the ends before placing
it in the oven.

“Mom, why do you cut the ends
off before baking the ham?” she asked. “Hmmm…I think it helps soak
up the juices while it’s baking.  I’m actually not sure,
though. That’s just the way your grandma always did it, so I’ve
just always cut them off. Why don’t you call grandma and ask
her?”

So, the little girl phoned her
grandma and asked “Grandma, mom is making a ham and cut off the
ends before placing it in the oven. She said that it’s probably to
help soak up the juices but wasn’t sure. She said you’d know
because she learned how to cook from you.”

“That’s true. I do cut off the
ends of the ham before baking. But I’m actually not sure why
either. I learned how to cook from my mom. You should ask
her.”

So, the inquisitive little girl
called her great-grandmother and asked “Great grandma, mom, and
grandma said they learned how to cook a ham from watching you. Do
you cut off the ends of the ham to help it soak up the
juices?”

The great grandmother chuckled.
 “Oh, no sweetie.  I just never had a pan big enough to
hold a whole ham, so I always had to cut off the ends to make it
fit.”

The story of the ham is not new,
and has been told numerous different ways, but it is a great
example of the critical
thinking errors we make
every day.  When we do things “because that’s what we’ve
always done” we fail to seek opportunities for improvement. We fail
to see the
assumptions we make
every day out of habit and routine. When we just keep cutting off
the ends of the ham, we fail to innovate.

“No problem can be solved from
the same level of consciousness that created it.”  - Albert
Einstein

All that to say, just because
that is what may be “common” is it the most effective?  I
understood and did this myself in the earlier days of my career.
 Since then, I have learned that (for me and I found to help
me be successful) was to treat the first step with the buyer, no
different from the seller.  Have a consultation, get face to
face and see what’s really going on.  When you do this, it
sets up the rest of the process to go forward with fewer issues and
a more fluid manner.

At the consultation be sure to do the
following:

1. Present you plan of
   action -  (POA) for
   the buyer.  This is the equivalent of a listing presentation
   for the seller.  What are the steps you will take as you
   represent the buyer? This builds value and emphasizes your
   professionalism.


2. Use a questionnaire
   Have a well thought out
   “questionnaire” that you can use to perform an in-depth needs
   analysis. When you “wing it” you risk missing important details
   that can come back to haunt you later.


3. Get commitment
   - Are you willing to work for free?
    I don’t think that is your plan, and yet it happens all the
   time.  People go forward working with a buyer and everyone
   “feels” good about everything….until...they find a home and
   opportunity they can’t pass up with another agent.  - It’s an
   extreme example and yet effective.  Would you get married to
   someone who says “ok you can marry me, however, I don’t have to be
   married to you”? Of course not!  My experience and suggestion
   here is it’s just fair - it’s an exchange of commitments - your
   time and expertise to the buyer - and your buyer showing loyalty to
   you for your time and expertise.  It’s call fair and
   reasonable!  When you demonstrate value, show the benefits the
   buyer receives, they will sign a buyer rep agreement with you just
   as a seller that sees the same value and signs your listing
   agreement.


4. Establish time lines and set
   expectations - The big
   takeaway from this step is to be EXPLICITLY clear on when the buyer
   will be ready to get the keys to their new home?  It’s not
   enough to have an “idea”. We have to know for sure.  Also,
   know WHY this is important to the buyer?  What happens if that
   date is missed?  Exhaustively find out what the motivation is.
   Once you find out the timelines, you can then determine if you move
   forward, slow down or wait till a later date. Next, you can use the
   “formula” to determine what to do next, and this allows the buyer
   to clearly understand what has to happen to meet their goals.
    

Tip #2 - Use The Formula - This is something I came up with awhile back.
It’s something I figured out as a result of being in that difficult
and very precarious situation when you have a buyer that wants to
buy a home, it’s just not for say several months down the road.
 You don’t want to lose the lead, and you also don’t want to
waste time showing homes and know the buyer isn’t in a position to
perform. What do you do?  I can tell you what most agents are
doing, they getting caught in this trap of showing homes
reluctantly and against your better judgment. This is always
frustrating!  I was in this situation so much I finally came
up with the “formula” here is how it works. By the way, it won’t
work 100% of the time; nothing works 100% of the time, however,
done consistently; it will work in your favor over time.

1. Establish a timeline
   - How many days there are from
   today, until they are ready to move in. Let’s say for this example
   it’s 75 days or 10 weeks. Sounds like a lot of time right?
    


2. Ask
   the buyer “are you aware of how many days on average it takes to
   close a sale once you find your home of choice?” (Doesn’t matter
   what they say)  Typically, you will hear 30 or 45 days.
    


3. Regardless, we confirm or agree and use 45 days
   as an example. Take (in this case) 75 days and subtract 45 days for
   the closing period.  This leaves us 30 days to identify and
   get a contract on a home. All of a sudden, the buyer’s mindset
   changes as they don’t have 75 days anymore, they have 30.
    This brings some perspective and creates urgency.
    


4. Next,
   we explain “ok, so we have 30 days to find your new home and get a
   successful contract in place”  Unless you let me know
   otherwise, that is the timeline I am working towards to make happen
   for you.  A CLEARLY DEFINED OBJECTIVE! How many buyers would
   you like to have ready to buy a home in 30 days?  Same example
   - in this case, buyer ready to move in 60 days...less 45 to close,
   all of a sudden we have two weeks!  


5. If
   your buyer begins to lose focus or enthusiasm, you can remind them
   (tactfully) about the time frames to help keep things on
   track.

Let’s look at the opposite scenario, the buyer says they
want to look at homes and aren’t able to buy for five months. What
do you do then?

1. Establish how many days there are from today,
   until they are ready to move in. Let’s say for this example it’s
   150 days or 5 months.  


2. Ask
   the buyer “are you aware of how many days on average it takes to
   close on a sale once you find your home of choice?” (Doesn’t matter
   what they say)  Typically, you will hear 30 or 45 days.
    


3. Regardless, we confirm or agree and use 45 days
   as an example. Take (in this case) 150 days and subtract 45 days
   for the closing period.  This leaves us 105 days to identify
   and get a contract on a home.


4. We
   can have the following conversation with the buyer.


5. “I
   want to help you...you have a few options...if we find your
   “perfect” home, we’d have to find a seller willing to wait 100 days
   to close, and 60 days is considered to be a longer than the typical
   time frame. Also, you will usually not be able to negotiate
   favorable terms since the offer isn’t as attractive to the seller.
   It also can bring up some challenges for your financing, locking in
   and fluctuation in rates. (seller market - will be looked over in
   multiple offers) So, you have a few choices…

1. You
   can wait until you get a bit closer to your timeframe and start the
   buying process then. OR


2. If
   you can, move up the date to close the gap and be within the
   typical closing time period.

It’s up to you...what would you
prefer?  (either way, it works to your favor)

With some practice, you can
learn how to deliver this in a sincere manner.  It is what it
is - having a conversation like this has helped me numerous times
work through these two situations that are bound to come up often
when working with buyers. The key is really making it about them
and showing your support for their circumstances, not that you
aren’t interested in showing them homes.

Tip #3 - Showing Property Best
Practices  

Show them how the food is cooked in the
kitchen:

1. Pull
   all properties that match your buyer’s criteria.


2. Tell
   them how many you found.


3. Explain to them how many you ruled out due to
   location (train track, traffic street, etc.) or didn’t meet
   condition expectations, significantly overpriced, etc.
    


4. This
   leaves the net total of possible matches.


5. Remove doubt - Doing this helps the buyer
   realize that what you’ve presented is the entire market available
   to them at this moment, based on their criteria. Also, this removes
   that “what if there is something we haven’t seen yet” thought
   process. We have to let our buyer into the research process and
   allow them to be a part of what you have done to prepare for them.
    Usually, we just present them homes - it’s like putting a
   plate in front of someone and saying “eat” and not asking if they
   are even hungry.

Get your buyer used to hearing “would you like to make
an offer on this home” -
The idea here is that we don’t want this to sound foreign to the
buyers we work with.  We also don’t want to come across
obnoxious; there is a balance here.  When you ask this
question, you get to learn what is going on in your client’s mind.
 Open dialogue allows you to be on the same page and encourage
the process forward based on that feedback.  When we don’t
talk, we don’t know what is taking place and end up dragging out
the process.

Play the Beat It game with your buyers -
 This is a fun way to
help you and your buyer rule in or out homes and keep focused.
 Here’s how it works.  You show a home, on your way out
the door, ask them to rate the home on a 1-10 scale, 10 the
highest.  Let’s say they rate it a 6. (as a side note, two
great follow up questions are 1. Ask them “what was it about the
home that makes it a 6 in your mind? 2nd - What would have to
happen to make it a 10? This tells you how they are evaluating
their decision-making process.)  You go to the next home on
your route and again, on the way out the door, ask how does this
one rate on a 1-10 scale?  They say an 8, then this means this
one “beat” the last one.  This home is in 1st place, forget
about that last home, let’s see if we can “beat it”. You go on to
house #3, ask the same question … they rate it a 7...so you
say...that means house #2 is still the one to beat, let’s forget
this one and so on. As an example, if you were to show 5 or 6 homes
that day, you all know which one is the home in 1st place.
 This sets up a simple way to ask at the end of the tour the
following “well, of the six homes we saw today, home #2 was your
favorite home...would you like to make an offer and see what we can
do on that one?”  My experience is agents just show and show
and show some more homes and never make an attempt to get the buyer
to make a buying decision. Lastly, if we don’t do this then all the
homes begin to blur together, and the buyers can easily get
overwhelmed and shut down.