Learning Modules

Wonderful Buyers Experience

Know Your Clients in Person

- Be personal
Connect with your clients on a personal level. Start meeting by developing a rapport, finding out something in common. Ask a set of questions to build a basic profile around what they are looking for, what their budgets are, their location preference etc. Refer to "Consulting Buyer Checklist" for detail checklist

- Develop Initial Search Criteria
Go one level deeper to better understand their needs in detail. Get a sense of their top priorities, non-negotiable. Discuss hypothetical scenarios such as "Would they consider remodel an old house?", "Would they consider a trade off location for a bigger and newer house?"

- Figure Out Who is the Final Decision Maker
If there are multiple buyers in a transaction, normally only a person would be the final decision maker. Treat either people equally, consider everyone's input but work to interpret who is the final decision maker. This is something important to know in the later offer phase.

- Make Yourself Outstanding
Share data about local market statistics. It will immediately demonstrate to your client that you are knowledgeable and consistently staying on top of what's changing.
Let your testimonials shine. Prepare a one-page sheet that highlights client stories and testimonials and leave it to your clients.

- Clarify Restrictions/Time-line/Contingencies
Walk the clients through each step of the buying process, how long each step might take, how involved both of you and your clients will be in each step. Discuss about what other contingencies might be. As the process progresses, make sure your client always understands what the next step will be and what they will need to prepare.

- Get Your Clients Pre-approved
It's important to ask your clients to get pre-approved before showing. One side, it shows how serious your clients are about the purchase. Another side, it avoids miss good opportunity events when the right house comes on to the market but your clients are not financially ready. Personally connect your clients with a few different mortgage brokers and lenders who you had already known well and established good connections with.

- Make Sure to Have an Exclusive Agency Relationship
It's better to discuss their exclusive relationship with you as their agent. A written agreement would be recommended to strengthen the level of trust at early phase.

- Ask Your Clients What Their Preference of Different Communication Channels and Time Frame are
For different communication channels such as phone call, text message, email, social media, which one do they prefer? What would be a good time to call. This information would be valuable even after the transaction closed.

Search and Showing

- Address Non-negotiable
Is a high HOA deal breaker? Is a large backyard a must? Is a remodel out of the equation? Discuss those with your clients to have deeper insight about their needs.

- Automatic Email with Listings Update
Setup an automatic Email based on your client's search criteria. Work with your clients to continuously narrow down their search and refine the details of what they are prioritizing. Adjust the search criteria accordingly.

- Plan the Showings
It's especially true for multiple showings in one day. Use route optimization tools such as mapquest.com to determine the best route. Schedule the showings according to the order of the optimized route. Be sure to account for extra time for traffic and small surprises.

- Highlight Bright Points
Point out specific details that your clients had prioritized in your earlier conversations. Get your clients excited about the house's attributes that match their needs.

- Point out downsides
A house could be the most valuable asset your clients might have in their whole life. Call out the downsides that your client may miss. If you take good care of your clients and put their interests first, you will win in the long run.

Get Offers Accepted

- Get the Most Important Thing Right: the Price
Run CMA and share it with your client. It provides your client insights about the market and the house and gets them aligned. This is especially important in situations where the price does not reflect what you believe the sold price will be. By doing this, you can explain to your client why.

- Pay Attention to DOM(Day on Market)
DOM may provide you additional insight about the house and you want to take advantage of it. For example, if a house has been on market for a while, it may make sense to call the listing agent and ask why. It might be a good time to advise your client to make a lower price offer. But if the market is so hot, you need to understand how flexible in terms of budget your client can be. You may suggest your clients put a strong offer before the review date, sometime even before most people see it. If the offer is strong enough, the seller might accept the offer, cancel the open house, and your clients can avoid a multiple offer bidding war.

- Win in a Multiple-Offer Hot Market
Stay in contact with the listing agent. Engage them in frequent communication so that you can find out what you need to do to win.
Be creative. Free seller rent back, increase down payment, increase earnest money, waive inspection, waive HOA review, waive financial contingency, waive lower bank appraisal, etc. Choose some or all of those options, being situation-based flexible to win your client the bid war.

After Closing

- Update Your Clients Profile
Add details about your client in your contact list. What are their jobs? What are the children's names? What do they like to do in spare time?

- Ask Your Clients for Testimony
Testimony could be a valuable social asset. Ask the clients to leave a good review on Zillow.com or other social media.

- Add Your Clients to Regular Newsletters and Marketing Campaigns
By getting communication automatically regularly, you help your clients stay up-to-date on how the local market is performing. Don't forget to check in to see if they are interested in upgrading or moving, after 4 or 5 or 7 years.

- Connect Your Clients to Good Subcontractors
Keep a list of good subcontractors of different specialties. This would be a great touch point for you.

- Invite Your Clients to Upcoming Events
Invite them to local community public events or important personal events to stay in touch and reconnect.

- Add Your Clients to Your Social Network
Connect your past clients with each other. Be useful and thoughtful. Remind them you are a lasting resource for them. Make sure they know that you can help them with all of their real estate needs and more.

Getting Your List to Market Quickly

- Start with Beautiful Photos
When everything goes online, photography is a critical step in getting people seeing your listing before they even step onto the property. Your photography should have a warm and inviting tone. Pay special attention to the lighting. The house should be prepared clean and tidy before the photography. Always get shots of Living Room, Kitchen, Master Bedroom, Front Exterior and any special good features of the property.

- Don't Underestimate the Power of Video
Videos can capture more viewers than a single image would. Short, informative and beautiful videos can grab the attention of potential buyers or even sellers. Besides the property under listing, you can also capture the popular neighborhood spots such as Green Lake in the Seattle area to give potential buyers a sense of community. By carefully planning out video content on YouTube or other social media channels, you can build a bank of content that can keep your audience engaged beyond the current listing.

- Do Email Marketing campaigns
Send "JUST LISTED" email around as soon as the listing goes live. Engaging and high-quality pictures are highly recommended. Be consistent in all visual elements you used. Always using the same color, font, image type and headline, you can help your audiences quickly identify your email and listing.

- Plan Open House
It's recommended to do Open House the first weekend of listing being alive. You should confirm with the seller(s) all logistics ahead of time. Open house is also a key opportunity to connect with new clients. Remember to check out the Open House Checklist for more details.

- Get Right Open House and For Sale Signs
Make sure your signs are always ready to be deployed. Order a new set, one week before you are running out of existing inventory. Signs are an effective way to capture the attention of potential buyers as well as potential neighbor sellers.

Transaction Forms and Tools

Introducing the NWMLS Education Portal

How to write an offer

Form22A: Financial Terms

Form22T: Title Review

Form22K: Utility

Form35: Inspection

Form35E: Price Escalation

Form17: Seller Disclosure

Seller's Property Disclosure Woes

Transaction Desk

How to handle counteroffers

Matrix Tutorial CMA

Create a Listing Transaction

Authentisign Electronic Signature Service - Tips & Tricks

New Forms

Forms Revisions, Part 1: Form 35

Forms Revisions, Part 2: Form 22A

Forms Revisions, Part 3: Form 35E

Forms Revisions, Part 4: Agency Disclosure Provision

Forms Revisions, Part 5: Form 35E and Form 22AD

Forms Revisions, Part 6: Earnest Money

Form 22EF Part 1 (4 parts in total)

Avoid Getting Pulled into this Mortgage Fraud

Seller Wants to Terminate After Mutual Acceptance

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