Georgia Mortgage FHA

Sounds like the beginning to the Twilight Zone, yes? What home buyers and even home sellers do which is always a mistake only of shortsightedness or failure to have highly adaptable contingency plans is to think that everything is going to go smoothly – no glitches. Wouldn’t that be just dandy! So what to do?

Educate, train, prepare. Even practice. Practice? Yes! Practice! Think you can’t practice with a seller or a buyer? Think you can’t dry run it? Oh you think that takes too much time to do with every deal? Okay then, hush your whining

It takes maybe 1 hour to walk through a potential listing and hold nothing back about what you see. If you don’t have a checklist of items available through your brokerage buy one from one of the online resources. You’re trying to be a professional, a coach, a guide, and you don’t want to tell the people their shoes sitting in front of the door are an issue? Their scratched up old non-stick skillets hanging from the rusty bar over the stained stove are a welcomed site to buyers?? Then get back on the porch and let the big dogs run! (I don’t like that saying but it’s so popular here in Atlanta … silly, isn’t it?)

The nicest way to do it to is bring in a walk through expert who will do all the talking for you. That way you can be the hero. You may have to pay them $200 or so for the 30 minute walk through but it will save your face and get right down into the dirty little cracks and crevices! The walk through expert can even be one of your co-agents or a designer friend. Obviously a professional staging artist can do the same but sometimes they don’t want to do it quite to the point it may need to go. A third party who will never be seen again may offer you the best out.

If you don’t mind being brutally honest yourself – go for it! It’s only going to help you sell the home faster and at a higher dollar amount.

You can also talk to your listing clients about their home while you are shopping for their new home … if you’re their buyer’s representative. Point out good and bad things that you see while showing them properties that they can pay attention to in their own home.

Buyers Rep’s especially for first time home buyers you can have your hands full as you know! I’ve been around the industry long enough to know that I don’t want to show homes. I have no desire or intention to do so. However, I have agents who do and this is what I recommend they do and the ones who do are the ones who top the 6 figure bump year after year.

Bring the clients into the office. Set them down in a quiet space and pretend like they know nothing. Tell them you’re going to pretend as though they know nothing so you make sure you’re doing YOUR job properly and it’s no reflection on them and their intelligence. Talk to them about the importance of being pre-qualified by a lender (at my office they just walk over to the mortgage side and handle it right there). Explain to them that you don’t just evaporate into thin air when they can’t see you that you are actually going to spend hours and hours searching through properties and preparing property tours for them. Never hesitate to tell them if you are very busy. Some “gurus” will tell you to never do this. Conversely my experience shows that when people know you’re busy they (a) respect you (b) respect your TIME (c) perceive you as more successful and professional than they would if they thought you were the only client and (d) respect your advice with an additional amount of weight.

With new clients tell them what to expect. Tell them there will be rainy days, you’ll go to houses they like but they don’t like the neighborhood. Tell them there will be imperfections to look for which may be bargaining chips. Snow them a HUD 1, an offer letter and a sales agreement. Let them spend time with their mortgage person (NEVER answer mortgage questions REGARDLESS of what you think you know) and get all the facts about what happens on that side of the table. DRIVE THEM TO THE CLOSING ATTORNEY’S OFFICE AND LET THEM SEE THE CLOSING TABLE! If they’ve never seen one they have NO IDEA what to expect.

Prepare your buyers for offers that are not accepted and tell them what happens before it happens. Warn them about title issues that could come up – liens that the seller may not have known about.

It may take a little more time in the beginning to cover all these steps, all the bases, but in the end it is such a value to you and your clients that you were prepared for the storm that never came!

— admin