Welcome to another edition of Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, coach and speaker for the Mike Ferry organization, and happy to fill in for Mike this week. So listen, we just got finished with a Sales Talk workshop, and in that workshop we were talking about a lot of the techniques that we use in the light of everything that’s going on out in the world today in our real estate industry. And there’s one little series of thoughts about working with buyers and Mike developed this series of thoughts about working with buyers. Gosh, almost 50 years ago. And what’s interesting about it, as you hear these rules in working with buyers today, they seem to make more sense than ever right now. So, we have always been a primarily listing agent/listing oriented company, and we would all agree today that listing properties is probably a better thing to do in almost every circumstance, right? But we have to recognize that if we’re going to work with any buyers at all, there’s only one way. If we want to ultimately become a strong listing agent, we need to get stronger with the buyers that we work with. So, here’s seven rules from Mike from a long time ago. See if these apply today. See if they make sense.

1) All buyers should be qualified by a lender first and prequalify the prospect for their motivation

The first rule Mike says when working with buyer, consider these two thoughts. If you’re going to work with a buyer, consider these two thoughts.

1.100% of all buyers should be qualified by a lender first. No exceptions.

Okay. Do you deny that at all? That seems like common sense. 100% of all the buyers you work with should be qualified by a lender first, no exceptions.

2. And then two, if you’re going to work with a buyer, we should then pre-qualify the prospect for their personal motivation and for the type of home they would like to buy.

Makes sense, but the missing word in there is for their motivation. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of times when a buyer comes across our view or we get a new buyer, we ask them what they would like in a home. We make sure they’re qualified by the lender. But then it comes down to that part about qualifying for them for their motivation, right? So could you accept this, that every buyer you get from now on, they’re going to be qualified by a lender, and then you’re going to qualify them for their motivation. And of course the type of home you’d like to buy.

2) Only show property when all of the decision makers are present and they’ve signed a buyer broker agreement

Look at the second rule: only show property when all of the decision makers are present and they’ve signed a buyer broker agreement.

Okay, so only show property to a buyer when all of the decision makers are present and they’ve signed a buyer broker agreement. Okay. So let me ask you, this was written, like I said, almost 50 years ago. And now guess what. We have buyer/broker agreements are part of what we do for most of us in the US.

3) There’s only three types of buyers that we recommend.

Look at this rule. There are only three types of buyers that we recommend you work with. There’s only three types of buyers that we recommend.

a)You work with a past client who are motivated and have to buy. Who wouldn’t turn down a past client who’s motivated and has to buy? We should work with those.

b)Your sellers who are priced to sell and have to buy. Okay, now listen to those words. Price to sell. Should I be spending a whole bunch of time with one of my sellers who is dramatically overpriced and not going to sell? Should I spend much time with them as a buyer? Probably not going to work out that well, but boy, if they’re priced right and they’re really motivated and they have to buy, I would work with that type of buyer every time, all day long

c)Then highly qualified, highly motivated referrals. You know, you have another agent. if you’re with Mike Ferry that refers you, a buyer or one of your past clients refers you a buyer that’s highly motivated and highly qualified. We recommend that you work with that type of buyer.

So you notice I didn’t say calls and add calls and lead purchase and all those other things. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that funnel of buyers from all those other sources is usually what keeps an agent from becoming a strong listing agent because they get tied up with all those buyers. So rule one is the qualifications. Rule two is everybody has to be present and they have to sign an agreement, of course. And rule three is there’s only three kinds of buyers you work with.

4) Call to confirm that they will be there before you take any further action.

Look at rule four: call to confirm that they will be there before you take any further action.

I don’t know about you, but there’s not a whole lot of fun in going to a house, having meeting a buyer and only Mrs. Buyer or Mr. Buyer or one of the buyers is there. Boy, that lengthens the process to make a sale, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t we always call to confirm that both the decision makers will be there before you take any further action? It makes perfect sense to me.

5) Have all of your buyer prospects meet you at your office for the initial buyer consultation.

Look at rule five: have all of your buyer prospects meet you at your office for the initial buyer consultation.

All right, now, with everything going on today, with the rule changes and some of the things that are happening, are we going to need to officially have buyer consultations? We think so. And should they meet you at the office first? Now keep in mind this was many, many, many years ago that Mike wrote this. And this is the way he suggested you work with buyers. It makes more sense today. So if a buyer won’t meet me at the office, if they won’t perform an initial consultation, obviously if I don’t get a buyer broker agreement signed, how much time am I wasting anyway? We’re wasting time.

6) Only show three homes at a time, and then ask them to buy one.

And then look at rule number six. Only show three homes at a time, and then ask them to buy one.

All right. We have proven and we’ve got Mike Ferry trained agents for years that work with buyers. And we have proven that the more homes you show buyers over days and days and weeks and weeks, or if you show them five or 6 or 7 homes at a time, all it does is confuse them. And the next thing you know, you’re drawing out the sales process, you’re extending it, you’re prolonging it. But we recommend that you only show three homes at a time maximum. And then check that out. Ask them to buy one, right?  Actually, be willing to ask them to buy one. That makes a lot of sense to me, doesn’t it?

7) Consider requalifying buyers

And then the seventh rule we have, as you show a buyer over the course of days and weeks, their confidence in you diminishes because they don’t feel you know what they want. Consider requalifying them or having them come back to the office.

If you haven’t put them under contract in the first 3 or 4 weeks, have them come back to the office for another consultation and verify that what they were trying to do and trying to accomplish still applies. So, I think about this, and I think about working with buyers and I think about, yes, it’s a vital source of the transaction. If there were no buyers, there would be no sales. But we also think about how often does the whole buyer side of the world screw us up from being able to become the strong listing agent that we’ve always wanted to be? We’ve always had this belief.

We think that 70% of your business should come from listings sold, and 30% maximum of your business should come from buyer-controlled sales. And we’ve seen this work with some of the best agents in the world for years and years and years. So, I’d have to ask you, what is stopping you from finally becoming the listing agent that you’ve always imagined becoming? Could it be that you keep getting run down the buyer road and being inefficient with the buyers you work with, so then it slows down the process. There’s not the time or the energy to become that listing agent that you want to be. I might suggest at this point right now to rewrite and revisit all of the standards you have for the buyers you work with. If you can reestablish the standards you have right there, qualifications coming to the office for the presentation, obviously the buyer brokered agreement signed, right? …If you can reestablish all those standards, you’re going to shorten the amount of time you spend before you put a buyer deal together, which gives you more room for either more buyers or in our world. Let’s go out there and find great listings. I want to present these thoughts to you because I think they apply today more than they have in a long, long time. Put some thought in it.

Thanks for your time. Thanks for spending a little bit of time with me here on Mike Ferry TV.