It's hard to THINK like a home buyer again...since it's been so long since I bought and I too was clueless about the process. Today, buyers in Frisco, Plano, McKinney, and North Dallas hear the news and read the newspaper about the difficulty our banking industry is in, and it makes it hard for them to take that first step into buying a home. They know that the first step is a tiny one in a commitment to a LOT of progressive other tiny steps before they get to the end. THEN, because they hear so much about the industry going sideways, they would almost rather not fully commit in fear of finding out they can't get financing and not have to go through all the "work" it takes to contact their Realtor, get preapproved, and so forth.
The new buyer seems to want to move forward and talk a good game, but they won't fully commit to the work it takes to get there. Don't get me wrong, their are still those buyers that just jump in with both feet, but it seems like right now their is a lot of "hanging the carrot out in front of the horse" routines to get progress moving. The last two buyers I met were very able and willing buyers, but I could tell they just weren't in it with both feet. It took at least 3 weeks to a month to get all the income and asset documents so that I could really put them in the system and size them up properly. Additionally, my Realtor alliance had a harder time keeping them accountable for their appointments to see homes. They would schedule a week out, and the day or two before, they had another priority pop up. It's always transparent to me where priorities are when someone isn't committed to moving, because for some reason their life is busier and crazier than anyone elses in America. On the other hand, as soon as that person gets REAL, they don't have anything else in the world going on. ha ha I'm sure we've all seen that one.
This situation called for a meeting between me and my realtor alliances. We sat down and I said, "I need you to ask our clients to get their W-2's, pay stubs, etc... at day one"...before you refer me and I talk to them. I told them to let the new buyer know that they need to have those documents together before they dial my number.
As times got tough, and pipelines got lean, there were more folks getting to see homes before they were fully preapproved, and it still just creates more work for everyone. "Desperation doesn't call for desperate measures, it calls for better measuring."
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