Determining the needs of our clients in paramount in order for us to be effective helping them find the home that meets their requirements. While experienced buyers may have a much better idea of what they are looking for, first time buyers often do not.
It is critical that we ask the right questions to make sure we obtain information that will be helpful to us so we can, in turn, assist our clients. And certainly it is true in other areas of our business (mortgages for example) that the right questions must be asked.
I think many folks assume that buyers tell us what we want know when we ask - how many bedrooms, how many baths, how much room, and all the other standard questions we ask. But if we don't ask the right questions we may miss important information.
- LISTENING to what the buyers tell us is key to determine what other questions to ask
- Understanding the buyers' lifestyle will give us important clues, perhaps even visiting their current home to see how they live
- I find it helpful to use a checklist ("What's Important to You?") that I email to folks so I make sure I get the details of what I need to know, as well as finding out what is MOST important vs. those things the buyers are willing to trade off.
- While open ended questions may be useful for starters, it is often necessary to drill down further and get specific about what the buyers want, or think they want
- Reiterating what you are told is a good way to confirm that you heard the information correctly, plus you can ask a confirming or clarifying question
- Don't assume that the buyer has told you everything important - you MAY have not asked the RIGHT QUESTIONS
I made a mistake recently that illustrates my point. I have some new buyers who found me through my blogging (yippee). I had a very nice conversation on the phone to gather details of what they wanted (they want to move but do not need to, and the next house must meet certain criteria). I usually am pretty thorough with my questions and thought I had what I needed, especially since they told me what the home MUST have.
We recently went out to look at the homes they wanted to see from the list I sent them. Turns out having a single story home is REALLY important (or a downstairs master) which is not easy to find given their other criteria. Normally I ask about this but for some reason I did not. Fortunately we had some single story homes to look at, but it clearly shows that a simple omission can make a huge difference in your ability to effectively help your buyers.
The other point I would add is to realize that the criteria may change over time for a variety of reasons, and that's OK. Getting on-going feedback and asking more questions about the buyers' needs are important to stay on track.
Our buyers often have a good handle on what they want and need, but it is up to us to ask the RIGHT QUESTIONS to tease out that information. It's all part of tuning in to our clients' needs and how best to service them.
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Jeff - some really excellent advice, especially the 'listening' part. One other thing that is critical early on in the process - who is in charge? When dealing with couples, who is on point? Who is going to influence the buying decision the most? I've had situations degrade because I wasn't sensitive enough to this....