Can't I Just Look at Your Listing?

Separating the Lookers from the Buyers

 

     As a Lethbridge real estate professional who has helped move thousands of people and completed hundreds of successful transactions over 23 year, I have developed some particular tools and techniques that make the way I do business much more efficient.  One of the things I do extremely different than most agents is that I do not waste my time or my clients time with unqualified buyers. 

 

     What I mean by this is that every single buyer that I put in the car and take to view a home has been qualified.  I know their situation, I know their finances, and I know they are in a position to buy that home that day.  Many real estate agents are uncomfortable asking qualifying questions of their potential clients, many of them do not even know what questions to ask.  In my opinion, this is what separates the best agents from the rest of the agents.

 

     A recently launched contest on Activerain sponsored by the folks at Boomtown asked "What negative reaction or response do you sometimes get?".  For myself, I have had numerous occasions where I am contacted by a stranger who is asking for information about one of my real estate listings.  I am happy to provide them with information on the property, about the neighborhood, and even about the market in general.  I won't however show them the property until I have had a chance to qualify them.  At first this comes as a shock to them, most buyers are accustomed to real estate agents unlocking doors and chauffeuring them around without ever once asking a qualifying question or inquiring about their finances. 

 

     The number of these listing inquiry buyers who comes under contract with me is high, and I am sure it is well above the industry average, however there is something even more surprising.  The most shocking thing that happens with these qualified buyers is not that I sell them all homes right away, but the fact that the majority of them choose to list their existing home with me.  Yes, once they realize the value and efficiency in having all of the potential buyers who want to see a listed home qualified in advance, they recognize how much time they will save and how much more likely every showing is to result in a potential offer. 

 

     What often starts out as just a misunderstood and peculiar way of doing business, eventually becomes one of the very specific reasons that clients choose to do business with me.  This is a great example of spinning a negative into a positive.

Robert W May is a Real Estate Broker in Lethbridge Alberta, having now been in the industry for over 23 years. . He was also a licensed Lethbridge mortgage broker and financing expert with Canada First Mortgage of Calgary Alberta for the past 10 years.  He is an industry leader always willing to help train and educate others in how to improve their business models for financial and personal benefit.