[FREE DOWNLOAD] How to Avoid Surprises With Your Clients

I hate surprises. When I say “hate” I mean LOATHE. Someone threw me a surprise party and immediately after the “surprise” I left. Seriously. I was out.

In real estate, there are all kinds of surprises. A fence falls down. A home has termites. Tons of stuff happens that you can’t control and it can be unpredictable (and sometimes really annoying) but that’s part of the job, right? You can’t walk out just because things aren’t going as planned. No transaction is ever perfect.

What You Can and Cannot Control

While I can’t control a flooded basement, I found that I could get a lot of information from my clients just by asking a few simple questions. The information that I collected helped me better serve my buyers and sellers and helped me avoid a lot of surprises.

I like to think of this as a kind of intake form, although that’s probably the most boring sounding thing I can think of. Basically, you want to give every client a questionnaire that asks the basics so you have all the information about their situation and can make the best assessment of how to proceed.

Stop Taking Bad Deals!

Realtors are constantly taking on clients who aren’t actually ready to buy or sell. They’re desperate for the deal and they end up in a bad deal. When you take a bad deal, you’re wasting time and we all know that time is money. If you want to avoid getting into a bad deal (who actually wants to get into a bad deal??), you absolutely have to prequalify your client.

What You Need To Know Before Taking on a Client

For instance, maybe you buyer hasn’t been pre-approved for a loan yet. That’s definitely going to change the game for you as their Realtor.

Before you can start looking for and showing your buyers homes, you’re going to want to know what they can afford. Not what they say they can afford but what they actually can afford. What about amenities? Do you really know what’s important to your buyer? Stop driving them around to every home that seems like a good fit. Rule out the homes that are deal breakers. If they want a 2-bath, don’t show them 1-bath homes. If you know this stuff in advance, you’re less likely to have frustrated buyers.

What about amenities? Do you really know what’s important to your buyer? Stop driving them around to every home that seems like a good fit. You’re wasting precious time! Rule out the homes that are deal breakers. If they want a 2-bath, don’t show them 1-bath homes. When you know this stuff in advance, you’re less likely to have frustrated buyers.

The same goes for sellers. If you take on a seller and agree to list their home but after you do the work to get the listing up, you find out that they want to list the home over market value and they need $35k to move into their new home…RED FLAG!

You can dodge that bullet (or at least know that you are taking a crappy listing) if you pre-qualify your seller. Again, this functions more like an intake form. It helps solidify the conversation that you likely have with your clients from the get go but it also helps ensure that you ask all the necessary questions. You don’t want to invest time, effort, and resources into listing a home only to get fired because the home hasn’t sold.

“Make Good Choices” (and other things your mom told you)

I know this sounds pretty basic but giving your client this form helps solidify the conversation that you likely have with your clients from the get go. It also helps ensure that you always ask all the necessary questions. You don’t want to invest time, effort, and resources into listing a home only to get fired because the home hasn’t sold.

So because I love you, I’m sharing my prequalifying questionnaires with you. They aren’t fancy or branded. But they will give you a good idea of what questions you need to ask. You don’t need to know how much they make or how much credit card debt they have (leave that to a mortgage broker… that’s what they are there for). You just want to get some key pieces of information so you can decide if the transaction that you want to get involved with.

Feel free to edit and add your branding in there (just please don’t use Comic Sans)!

Click here to get your FREE Pre-Buyer Questionnaire

Click here to get your FREE Pre-Listing Questionnaire

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