A regular part of my initial consultation is my buyer orientation. We talk about their needs and expectations, the state of the market, what I can and can't do for them, etc. This is one of the most important services I offer to my clients. If they come in for buyer orientation, my odds of getting an offer accepted and getting to closing increases many-fold.Much of the orientation is done with anecdotes. I tell them about pitfalls others, including me, have encountered in the past. We talk about availability of funds at closing, that the signing does not equal the closing, why we do walkthroughs, etc. I do not discuss all of the particulars of the purchase and sale until we actually write one because there's so much to absorb. Information is broken into digestible parts with opportunity to review later. Everyone always gets opportunity to ask as many questions as they wish so that they feel very prepared.
While this was originally a first-time homebuyer concept, if the buyer hasn't bought in many years, running through the basics, especially the all-important closing date, is a necessary review. Many buyers don't remember that they don't get their key upon signing, even if we've just sold their house recently.
Forewarned is a fore-armed. Some real estate professionals seem to lead a charmed life and have transactions close smoothly without any pitfalls. However, I find that it's been a fact of my business that usually stuff happens, unexpectedly and inconveniently. If I had a crystal ball, I would find out what it was in advance, but I don't. So I do the next best thing and inform my clients that there's usually one item, we don't know what it is, but I will help them through it when it comes up. I usually go over common complications that can occur at any time between inspection and closing right after writing up the purchase and sale so that no one is caught off-guard, which prepares the buyers and sellers to expect the unexpected. My brokerage has an automatic 10 day extension built into the purchase and sale which I use to introduce the topic to my clients.Many times, when I tell my clients that we've hit a speed bump, they are pretty calm and remind me that I told them something might happen so they were emotionally prepared and it usually passes pretty quickly.
Once this process is put into practice, transactions began to go much more smoothly. Buyers panic less often when they know what's going on and that what is happening is not going to kill the purchase. They also draw comfort from the fact that whatever glitch is occurring has happened before and that their representative has experience in trouble-shooting it.
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