You’re on the phone with someone (a potential buyer) who has been looking online and has found a few apartments they want to see.
They’re anxious and want you to set up showings. Do you say yes and set up showings or do you tell them something else?
I suggest you set up a 1 hour initial meeting with them in your office and then set up the showings.
Here’s why!
As buyers, they need the kind of expertise you have. They know that because they didn’t call the listing agent themselves and make an appointment, they are on the phone with you. But, they are anxious to get out and see something.
Now is the time you should step up, be the professional real estate agent and tell them that they need to meet with you in your office for a 1 hour initial meeting and then you can take them out to see apartments that meet their requirements.
That one hour in office meeting is designed for you to educate them on the buying process, get them to like and trust you and let you decide if you want them as a client. So, it’s a very important meeting all around.
Notice that I said one hour **in office meeting**. This is important.
It seems obvious but it’s so easy to meet them for the first time at the first showing and then go to a coffee shop to talk.
This might work for renters, but it’s a bad idea for buyers.
So, what’s in that one hour meeting?
In my experience, most buyers I met with did not know what a real estate agent actually does for them throughout the entire process from first discussion through closing.They also generally looked at an agent as a commodity.
But, their goal was to find the exact apartment they envision at the perfect price and buy it quickly with no problems.
My goal, and I suggest you make it yours, was to get an exclusive buyers agreement signed by them and then work with them through the entire process till closing.
In the meeting I needed to learn about them, their vision, their finances, their current situation, their timing, their knowledge of the entire process, etc. I also needed to establish myself as a warm friendly person that they would like to work with who was knowledgable, competent, experienced, with resources and a commitment to find what they want and then negotiate the deal they want and bring it to a closing.
I found it best to arrange to have the conference room in my office available for the meeting. This is where you start building that image you want them to have of you when the meeting is over.
In the meeting, I have all the paperwork (State Disclosure, etc) ready for signatures.
I always had a pad and pen on the table and took notes during the conversations when the buyers were giving me the information I was asking for. This is a good practice for you and I found that clients like it.
Throughout the meeting I always spoke as if the buyers were already my clients. That helped with the image I wanted them to form of me and allowed me to be free to ask very specific and personal questions throughout the meeting.
I liked to end the meeting by doing a recap of their search parameters and then discussing the Exclusive Buyers Agreement and asking them to sign it. Sometimes they would sign it and sometimes the would say they wanted to think about it and get back to me.
I used this method for all my buyers and found it to be a great way to meet and establish a rapport and working relationship.
I hope you find this article helpful.
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Great information.