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By Jennifer Loucks
As a Real Estate Agent, how do you judge your clients ability to buy a house?
Remember when restaurants had dress codesmen had to wear ties and/or jackets, no jeans, etc.? People used to dress up when they flew on an airplane too. What happened?
Businesses that denied service based on how the person in front of them was dressed found out that they were often losing good business. Casual clothes became the norm and it became impossible to tell how much money a customer had based on what they were wearing.
Real estate agents often used similar criteria when a visitor to an Open House came in wearing torn jeans and a t-shirt, only to find out that that guy could buy and sell that house 100 times! Agents have to be very careful these days and use other techniques to determine if a potential buyer has the where-with-all to buy that house or not. We ask are you pre-qualified? or have you seen a mortgage broker? or we ask where they live now, how soon they want to make a change, etc.
Consider asking how long they have been looking, and in what areas, what is motivating them to look around, do they need to buy soon, etc. You can get a pretty good idea of their financial ability by how they answer these questions.
What about the eager agent who is only too happy to show that new client they got on a floor call lots of houses every weekend. At some point the agent has to get serious with the potential buyer. One way to start that conversation is to show them a Buyer/Broker agreement where the buyer is obligated to use the agent or to pay them a commission if they use someone else. This can scare buyers but its a good way to discuss how you get paid. Many people have NO idea that we dont get paid until the house closes, that we pay expenses and marketing costs for a house such as brochures, ads, food, etc. and that if the seller or buyer walks away we get nothing. There are few professions like this where we are not even reimbursed for our expenses or our time!
If you have discussed this with your buyer, you can ask them to commit to you as their agent, and can ask that they do get pre-qualified with a lender. If you are signing up a new listing and the sellers insist on lots of advertising, etc., ask them to split the cost of advertising. You can even offer to reimburse them for ad costs when the house sells.
If you use rational approaches to determining whether or not your client can indeed buy a house you wont need to judge them based on their dress, their car or the way they talk or waste time on those who will stay looky-loos forever. Lots less stress for you too!
I hope that potential buyers and sellers have read this too, as they need to be honest and up-front with agents as they work through the process, which can be agonizing at times. A good agent with whom you have a good rapport can make all the difference.
Jennifer Loucks
Broker Associate/JD
Frank Howard Allen
700 Fifth Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94901
www.RealtyForReality.com
415-640-7596
DRE#01336908
About the Author: Jennifer Loucks is a Real Estate Broker/JD with 30 plus years of experience in corporate management. Co-owned a nation-wide real estate franchise in N. California for 5 years, with over 50 agents, handling over 700 transactions. Listings/Sales,Lifestyle Changes.
RealtyForReality.com
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