ONE LESSON

One of the first buyers I worked with was a young man buying for the first time. He was interested in buying a one-bedroom one-bath condo in Chicago. When we met, I walked him through the whole buying process and made sure he understood what to expect once we started looking and once we got an offer accepted. After walking him through my presentation, I then asked him what he was looking for. He told me some of the main details that were important to him (beds, baths, locations, etc.), but he didn’t go deeper than just the basics. Eager to get started working with the buyer, I didn’t bother asking any follow-up questions, thinking I had enough information.

Many months later, after showing him over 60 properties, he finally closed on a condo close to where his parents docked their boat, something I didn’t know was important to him until much later in the process.

LESSON LEARNED: Understand all of your clients’ needs upfront so you can focus on the properties with the benefits that appeal to them.

When I met with the buyer, I was so excited to finally have a client that I made a mistake most agents make when they are new. I did not spend the proper amount of time really understanding what my client needed in a property. I spent most of our initial time together selling myself and explaining the process, thinking this was what I needed to do. While both of these are important, the next step is to completely understand what property features will make your clients want to buy a property and why! Once you understand these, you can focus on showing these types of properties and can talk to them about how the benefits a property has solve their needs.