Five Problems Real Estate Agents Encounter When Trying to Convert More Buyer Leads
Does any of this sound familiar working with buyers:
- Driving all around for endless hours showing homes.
- Showing homes you know the buyer won't like.
- Answering calls/texts/emails at all hours.
- Showing homes to not-so-serious buyers.
- Feeling that the phrase "buyers are liars" is true.
- Frustrated by indecisive buyers in a fast-paced market.
- Working with buyers for months looking at all the "wrong" properties.
- Showing 15, 25, or 35+ homes to one buyer before writing an offer.
I knew that life all too well when I first started in real estate. I started real estate as a full-time buyer’s agent, which meant my life was run by my clients. I dropped anything and everything when they wanted to go see a house. Heck, even when a lead came in I would drop everything to meet them! It was so exhausting and I started to hate the job. Even though I knew it’s not what I really wanted, I found myself dreaming of a “normal” job, with set hours and a set paycheck.
If you’re feeling drained, stuck and without a life (other than your work)—let me help you turn that around! After transforming my buyer’s agent process, I consistently show and sell an average of 3-5 homes to my buyer clients before they offer on a home. Since developing the Magic Process, I have had over 25 clients write an offer on the first home they saw. I have taught this same process to real estate agents just like you, and they have been able to significantly reduce their average homes-showed, as well.
Imagine converting more leads into confident buyer clients that excitedly purchase a home after you completed just two showings. Now imagine doing that over and over again with every buyer lead that comes your way. How much more time would you have to spend with your family, friends and do what you love? What could you do with that extra time?
Let's make one thing super clear: This approach is to serve the buyer and give them a great experience working with you. It is always about serving the client! Always. Always. Always. It's not about being salesy, pushy or sneaky.
With this process, you take part in the buyer’s journey on a deeper level than most agents. You will do a little more work upfront than you’re used to and it is going to be so worth your time. I’ll show you.
The Problem
I’ve worked with around 200 home buyers, and in the beginning—it was not easy. They took up all of my time, my energy, and often, my confidence!
Over the years of being an agent myself and coaching other agents, I know that if there’s a problem with a buyer client it usually boils down to one of these top five issues:
- Buyers are not prepared.
- Buyers are confused.
- Expectations were not set.
- Buyers can sense desperate energy.
- Boundaries were not made.
Buyer can’t make up their mind?
Buyer calls and texts you constantly?
Buyer wants you to drop everything and show them a house in a few hours?
Buyer ends up working with another agent?
Buyers keep offering too low and losing out?
Buyers think they are “doing all the work” searching for homes online and sending them to you?
Buyers never ready to make an offer?
Buyers want to look for houses too soon before they can move?
Buyers keep picking houses outside of their criteria?
Literally...all the problems that can occur, I can pinpoint to one of these reasons.
Because I know these can cause so many issues, I have refined and perfected the buyer’s process for you to cover each of these upfront!
When these are all handled upfront—the rest of the buyer’s process is quick and easy—and the buyer loves their experience with you!
How to convert more buyer leads
No matter how you were working with buyers before, this new way will entirely transform your business if you let it. Forget the feelings of lack and scarcity that have caused you to meet a stranger at a vacant house after only talking to them on the phone for three minutes. You’re worth more than that AND you are going to close so many deals with this new approach that you will never have to go back to those desperate (and dangerous!) techniques.
The old process
In the old process, you would get a lead and the lead would say, “Hi, I’d like to see 123 Main Street.” In order to hopefully turn them into a client, most agents say, “Great, let’s set up a showing” and they set up the showing right away. This means that without knowing anything about this person (and sometimes not even physically talking to them on the phone), you could be giving up your time and effort to show them a house.
Now let’s say you meet them at the house, they are pre-approved, they aren’t working with another agent and they want to move so you get excited. SCORE! You have a new “client”. I use quotation marks around the word client because in this old process, you most likely didn’t have them sign a buyer’s representation agreement. So in the land of legal real estate, they aren’t truly a client. We’ll come back to this.
So, you’re excited to add this buyer to your pipeline and you ask them what they are looking for in their next home. They tell you four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and two-stall garages under $400,000. When you ask them what cities, they say, “We’re open to anywhere within 45 minutes of the city as long as it’s the right house.”
You set them up on a home search and it says 43 homes that match their criteria, and you send them all to let them choose what they want to see. The buyer sends you seven homes they want to see and you schedule showings for all of them. The buyer ends up not liking any of the initial homes, and you end up seeing 32 homes with them over a period of 3 months and the buyer finally gets an offer accepted after losing out on two others. You feel like you had no life while they were searching for homes since you were constantly with them or talking to them, and so you’re excited they finally got an offer accepted.
As you move through the buying process, more struggles arise. The buyer wasn’t prepared for earnest money and had to move money into their checking account. They insist on asking for a long list of repairs during inspection that almost kill the deal. The buyer continues to call, text and email you at all hours of the day. Their lender ends up delaying the closing, etc. You get it. It’s a mess.
By the time closing comes, you’re exhausted and totally over it and so is your buyer. They are happy to be done with the whole process and so are you. You get the commission check and think, “Thank goodness that’s done!”
Here’s the thing: with the old process, that scenario is the best-case scenario because at least it ends with a paycheck. The worst-case scenario does not end with a paycheck, which happens more often than not in the old process.
Let’s take a brief look at the worst-case scenario. You meet the buyers at the house and you find out a.) they are working with another agent, b.) they can’t qualify for a loan, c.) they aren’t looking to move for another year or d.) you end up searching with them for months and they purchase a house from another agent they met at an open house (remember how you didn’t have them sign a buyer’s representation agreement?).
If you’ve been in the business for a while, undoubtedly you have experienced a few of these things. If you’re still running into these issues often, you will learn how to avoid them by implementing the strategies in this e-book. If you’re new to the business, it’s my goal to help you refine your buyer process so that you don’t have to deal with any of these issues.
The old process to the Magic Process
Want to continue reading and find out what The Magic Process looks like, plus:
- How to convert more buyer leads
- What to do on your buyer consultation
- How to set expectations
- How to prepare the buyer
- How to educate your buyer
- What specific clarity questions to ask
- How to send homes and what homes to send
- How to stay in touch post-closing
- Setting your energy and intentions
Grab the Buyer's Agent Magic E-Book here now!
