Teachers make great Realtors! Great Realtors are Teachers!

I use a very personalized Buyer Book, and wrote this piece for the newer agents in our firm...

After using my booklet for about 2 years now, I have had numerous offers to sell them. The idea, while appealing to my accountant, is not practical. Why? Well, who would buy it? Other agents? So they could collect dust on a bookshelf along side un-opened training manuals & CD series... No, that won't work. I have a better idea. I'll give the formula away, and any agent that wishes to make their own, can do so. In creating a manual, rather than copying someone else's, the "extra ingredient", the personality of the agent will come thru. That is what will make them unique...

My booklet is about 50 pages. Sounds like a lot, but it's a roadmap for buyers to get an overview of the process, and there is not really a way to make it smaller.

First is the cover...

Mine is titled

How to Buy A Home in Phoenix Arizona...

Without Going Crazy

and the subtitle is

An Analytical Approach to An Emotional Subject

I have a 3" graphic in the middle that I found in Microsoft Publisher... below that, I have my website name, and lastly, my name along with my wife's, who is also an agent with me. Use whatever title you'd like, but DO make it catchy. Think of the booklet as something you'd want your buyers to leave out on a coffee table, and have it be picked up by visitors to the place. You never know where the next buyers are coming from, but referrals are the single best way to grow your business. Spend some time on the cover! Use cover stock, and print at a higher resolution.  Refine it as you go along - don't wait until it is perfect - it is a work in progress.

Inside, I have a single page Mission Statement, on letterhead, and signed. This is a statement for the readers (buyers, in this case) to see early on, to get an idea of who you are, and what you are about. Stephen Covey, and others, have written extensively on the topic of Mission Statements. Suffice to say, you are better for having gone thru the process of writing one. Put it in here!

Next are the pages that are hardest to write, and almost useless to copy from someone else. These are the pages where you will explain, in your words, what the process of buying a home entails. You will explain terms, the roles of the various parties to a sale, costs involved, fiduciary duties, agency, and as many of the other "things" that go on in a sale. When you are new, this can be a wonderful learning exercise. The buyers want to learn too, and you are their teacher. Gotta know the material! My book ended up with about 18 pages of text - I call it Part One.

After Part One, I have another cover stock page, which I have titled The Forms

Here, I list, in "chronological" order, the myriad of forms that a buyer will come in contact with during the process. My own order is CLA, Buyer Broker Agreement, Consent to Limited Dual Agency, Agency (shorter form), Buyer Advisory (from AAR), an Active Market Report (comps for a sample area), Detailed Listing Sheet (MLS printout), NetValue Central report, Parcel maps (both plano & aerial - from county website), Purchase contract (filled out from Zipform with fictitious names), SPDS, Insurance & Mold addendums, a BINSR (with sample info), a walk-thru form, and finally, my own Resale Guarantee. If size in no limitation, you could also add a summary page from an inspection - put it right before the BINSR. You could add a sample net sheet, or a HUD-1 from a closed escrow. Mortgage cost comparisons are a possibility - if you are skilled at explaining them. I've left these out as my binding machine spines hold about 50 pages, and I'm up to 50 already. If you use an IBICO type binder, you have more room. Just beware of making it look too big, like a textbook, or too cheap, like your 13 year old made it.

This I call Part Two, and it is actually quite easy to come up with - you already have it - in the ZipForm program. This Part Two is where the procedures that you (and the industry) operate by are laid out in print. We all know that the printed word is given greater credibility than the spoken word... use that rule to help your buyers understand what is ahead of them. Also, information that reaches the brain via the eyes is retained better than information received via the ears. With this booklet in hand, buyers can "look ahead" on the sequence, and see what events are next.

Many of your buyers are going to be getting advice from relatives. This type of booklet builds credibility with them. It also serves an outline to follow when you are at that highly charged moment where you are drafting and explaining a purchase contract to them. I can assure you that if buyers are seeing a purchase contract for the first time when you are putting a pen in their hand, there will be an awkward hesitation while they gasp for comfort - comfort that comes only after they have knowledge and understanding. Have I beaten this point up too much? You are the teacher! They are (in a sense) taking a test. If you have taught them well, they pass. They get the keys to a home. You get paid. They fail, and...

I present my booklets to buyers at first meeting, and have it in a translucent plastic envelope. There is room for a CD that I burn news stories, virtual tours, and Power Point slide shows to, and also room for a few home warranty & home inspection brochures. The booklet is the centerpiece, however. The book also makes it much easier to obtain buyer loyalty, and get a signed Buyer Broker Agreement...

That's it! The recipe for a simple tool. You can make this "tool" any number of ways, and it will serve you well for years. From a 22 year veteran - my gift to you.

Created by Patrick Harfst CRS   http://www.arizonahomelocator.com