Real Estate: Buying, Selling, Pre-Qualifying & Communicating. If you’re a seasoned real estate agent, I’m preaching to the choir. And if you’re a real estate buyer or seller, you may be pretty knowledgeable yourself. But after a call I received this week, it’s regrettable that this post is actually necessary.

As a REALTOR® a big part of my job is to pre-qualify my real estate buyers before I show them any houses or condos in the Daytona Beach area. Even more so if they want to see one of my listings. I owe it to my sellers to make sure that anyone who views their home, is actually qualified to buy it! But that wasn’t the case this time.

It’s no secret that many buyers will call and expect real estate agents to run out the door and meet them at whatever house they’re sitting in front of. But seasoned agents will not do this. (I’m not even going to re-address the safety factor. You can read about that in my blog post titled “Realtor Safety Awareness-Buyers, You Need To Read This Too!”) We already know that there are a lot of inconsiderate people who will waste our time and think nothing of it. I could speculate on whether or not they realize we work on straight commission, pay for our own gas, pay ALL of our own taxes, buy our own supplies, pay for advertising, only get a percentage of the commission and not the whole thing *rolling my eyes on this misconception* and then there’s the fact that many buyers are not loyal, and are working with at least one other REALTOR® at the same time, etc., etc.

So to get to the point, last week I got a call from a lady who told me she had people who wanted to buy her house, and she would need to buy another home. I’m not going to go into all the details, but I will say, her house is not even on the market and she sounded very naive about the real estate selling and buying process. So as we were talking about what she wanted to buy, I was periodically asking her questions to pre-qualify her, and to protect her in case someone was trying to scam her in some way.

My 1st question was if she was sure her buyers were seriously interested in buying her house. This lady’s answer was vague, because she was anxious to get back to what she wanted to say, which was more about what she wanted to buy. The only answer I received was that they had called her twice so they must be serious. *sigh* So I asked if they were willing to pay her the amount she wanted, and how she had determined her asking price. At this point, I’ll interject that this conversation was very difficult because I was really getting a lot of resistance to the questions I was asking. If you’ve been in this business for any significant length of time, many times you just know that something isn’t adding up, or that someone is about to waste a lot of your time if you let them. So her response was that they hadn’t talked too much about the price because she just knew they wanted her house. *now drop head into hand, close eyes and rub temples*

So we continue with more talk about what type of home she wants, where she wants to be and how much she wants to spend. (Must be in Port Orange, Daytona Beach Shores or South Daytona, needs a condo or townhouse with a garage or carport and can only spend $100,000 to $125,000) Now we’ve added major complications. Who would think that with all the inventory we have on the market, that I could find someone who wants something that doesn’t exist? *now thinking about how to get off the phone*

So it’s time for another pre-qualifying question. My next question was whether or not she would be paying with cash, or if she needed financing. At this point she gets frustrated with me and wants to know why I’m asking her all these questions. So I soften my voice and very gently try to explain that as a REALTOR®, my first step in working with a buyer is to pre-qualify them, to make sure I can help them with their needs. At this point she decides to just not hear my answer, and goes back to telling me what she wants. *now sigh and have forehead resting on my desk*

I tried to ask a few more questions, but she just decided she wasn’t going to answer any more. (Silly me. I thought conversations were supposed to go 2 ways.) I finally told her I would search the MLS and send her a list of properties within her specifications. But of course she doesn’t have e-mail, and wants me to send them via snail mail. *stifle urge to scream*

I sent the lady a few listings, but I really don’t expect to hear back from her because

1. I don’t think she has a serious buyer for her house.
   
2. Unless she is willing to answer my questions, I can’t help her.
   
3. There really isn’t anything on the market that will meet her needs.
   

And to be honest, the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think she may be dealing with scam artists. I’ve written a couple of posts about this growing problem, but if someone is not willing to answer any questions, I can’t even progress to the step where they’re willing to listen to my concerns. As a professional, and an expert in my field, I have the knowledge that could save people from losing their homes. But what do you do when they won’t listen?

So I’m once again addressing a post to both real estate agents and the real estate buyers and sellers.

To the buyers and sellers: real estate agents are well aware of the fact that many of you want to do it all yourself, but do you know that we have to go through ongoing training, obtain Continuing Education, and personally go out of the way to educate ourselves in areas that you may not be aware of? Real estate is constantly evolving. And now a huge part of that evolution has become, how do we protect our clients against real estate fraud?. Perhaps you can help me. Shed some light on what I've written here. What are your thoughts as you read this?

Real estate agents: We all have our own way of doing business, which is great! It gives the consumer the choice of with whom they want to work. But one of my strong points is the ability to quickly adapt to the customer’s communication style, and develop a life-long real estate relationship. But you can’t win them all. So my question to you is, “How do you handle difficult customers”? I’m sure you each have your own frustrating stories. So were you able to overcome the initial difficulties or did you just walk away from the looming nightmare?

What are your real estate stories? If you want, you can just leave me a quick comment that you’re going to blog about it, then show me some link love =)

And finally, consumers, you may be interested in these blog posts about

• Real Estate Safety,
  
• Real Estate Scams,
  
• REALTOR® Business Practices,
  
• Contingencies in Real Estate Contracts,
  
• Changes in Real Estate Laws,
  
• Areas of Specialized Real Estate,
  
• Choosing a Real Estate Agent,
  
• The Real Estate Sales and Closing Process,
  
• Choosing a Good Listing Agent,
  
• New Home Owner’s Association (HOA) laws.

For detailed real estate information, visit my web site: Daytona Beach Real Estate. Visit this link for information on Port Orange Real Estate.