How to Get A Buyer's Agreement Signed

I am always amused when agents declare that buyers won't sign a buyer's agreement. The ones I work with do. What I've learned is that it's all in the way you approach it.

There is a particular way to approach the intial counseling interview with a  buyer to set the stage for the contract. There are 5 distinct steps to take.

Step 1: Tell Me What You Want The buyer came in with a real life situation in search of a real estate solution. Find out what that is. This is so much more than the "3-2-1" approach. The buyer says he wants 3 bedrooms, 2 baths on 1 level and you swivel to the computer, punch those parameters in, come up with a list, then turn to the buyer and ask "Would you like fries with that?" You are acting like an order taker.

Instead, seek first to understand. What's really going on with this buyer? He thinks he knows what he wants, but if you understand the full picture you may actually come up with a better solution. This first step could take the most amount of time in your interview.

Step 2: This Is What I'll Do I can't talk about my customer service plan until I know what the buyer wants. I want to customize the delivery of that plan to suit this particular buyer's needs. If it's a first time buyer, I will emphasize the basics; if it's an investor, I'll emphasize the analysis. And so on.

This is the portion of the interview in which I talk about my Preferred Buyer Plan as well as my agency duties. I realize that in some states the interview has to start with some agency dislcosure.

The next step is absolutely critical and many agents skip it, trying to make everything seem easier for the buyer. Remember the first ads NAR ran about Realtor awareness? They sort of sounded like: "You have a life. I'm a Realtor. I have no life."

Step 3: This Is What I Expect of You  If you have done an exceptional job on describing your services in Step 2, the buyer is going to wonder "What's the Catch?" So tell him.

In order to qualify for my Preferred Buyer Plan (when you name your customer service plan, you elevate its significance), a buyer must agree to work exclusively with me, be approved by a lender on my short list, and a few other activities. You can make your own list. It is critical for you to give the buyer something to do in order to qualify for this service.

Step 4: This is How I Get Paid It is so important to demonstrate value prior to asking for commitment which is why the steps are laid out this way. In this short sale market, you will describe that process and how you approach it in Step 2, proving your value.

If the buyer thinks it's fair for me to provide all these services (to underwrite their search and purchase) only to be paid a fraction of my fee, then that buyer doesn't qualify for my services.

Step 5: Build a Bridge to the Contract This is the seque that takes you from your interview and conversation to the actual written agreement. Sometimes you won't feel ready to do this prior to the first outing with a buyer because you may be unsure about the buyer's motivation or qualification. Most often I do it in the first interview, but I've been doing this a long time, too.

So here's the seque language that I learned from someone in a class a couple years ago: Everything we do in real estate is in writing, and this is no exception.

It's short, it's compelling, it's memorable. It puts the contract into the process.

Of course, it takes practice to be able to conduct the interview comfortably, to deliver that dialog, and to go over the contract. Agents should be as familiar with the buyer's agreement as they are with a listing, so much so that they can have the piece of paper facing the client and walk down the page describing the content, just as they do with a listing.

This process really works! Within 5 years I truly believe that we will all look back and wonder what took us so long to make this a part of our business plan and our way of doing business.