The skill set of a successful agent in 2013 is wide-ranging. Last year, there was a viral video that parodied the Super Bowl “God Made a Farmer” commercial, which somewhat accurately documented the roles we all play, variously, as our clients’ financial advisors, detectives, psychologists and even, if duty calls, gardeners and bed makers.
Then this year happened. And the market began to recover, with home prices ascending at breakneck speed for months on end. In times like this, when the market is ticking up faster than buyers’ expectations can keep pace, agents often find ourselves in the role of cheerleader.
Agents find themselves called upon to constantly provide encouragement about how and why buyers should not get discouraged or give up in light of their repeated losses in bidding wars or the emotional upset that comes from the dawning realization that their money won’t go as far or buy as much house as they’d hoped for.
I submit that there’s a more powerful way to deliver this encouragement in a way that sustains your buyer clients’ hope while also positioning yourself as an authority who will use your know-how to lead the way to a successful home buying experience. Developing the skills and using the tools of a coach can move you from cheering your buyers from the sidelines to leading the way to a home buying win.
Here’s how real estate agents can coach their buyers to success - especially in seller's markets.
1. Develop Playbooks
Every great coach has an equally good playbook, and every great agent should, too.
Every home you have ever sold has undoubtedly left you with learnings and insights that you use when advising your buyer clients. You know what a client’s experience of a transaction will look like from start to finish, from pre-approval to housewarming party—including all the points at which they will freak out.
You have the following strategies at your disposal that you can include in your playbook:
- Strategies for collecting the information you need about competition levels and seller priorities from the listing agent
- Strategies for understanding the comps and a buyers personal finances to formulate your recommendation regarding offer price;
- Strategies for knowing when to recommend a client change course and save more, spend more, offer more aggressively or house hunt in a new neighborhood
Normally, when you sit down with a buyer for the first time, they are ready to get in the car and start house hunting—they might even start out by sending you listings they already think are “the one.” But you know better—you know that you’ll need to first interface with their mortgage broker, help them understand list price-to-sale price ratios and possibly house hunt in a lower price range, and whatever other strategic steps their success in your market will require.
You know what a realistic timeline looks like, what action items they need to do at the beginning of their transaction to set it up for a successful end, and when to kick in a Plan B, C and D—as well as how to create the Plan B, C and D in the first place!
So tell them, from the beginning, that you have playbooks for every stage of the transaction. Coach your buyers to success—even in a heated market climate—by sitting down with them from the beginning and helping them understand, play by play, how a normal house hunt in your area today unfolds, all the decision points that they’ll face, ways they can rethink anything that causes them panic and fear and even insider insights like how many homes the average buyer loses before they are successful.
This positions you as a credible authority and causes buyers to relax into the feeling that they are being well advised and represented, when they do in fact experience things the way in line with the expectations your coaching has created.
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Learn the remaining three steps to coaching your buyers in hot markets to success on the Trulia Pro blog. Click the below image to read the rest of this article!
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