How to Do a Buyers Consultation
How to Do a Buyer's Consultation: A Step-by-Step Guide
Written by: Jason White, a leading real estate coach, broker, and expert in residential real estate agent training courses.
A buyer's consultation is a crucial first step in the home-buying process. It sets the stage for a successful partnership between the buyer and you, the buyer's agent, providing an opportunity to establish trust, clarify expectations, and outline the steps of their home shopping journey ahead. If you want to wow your prospective buyers and guide them smoothly toward homeownership, my guide will give you the best practices and simple steps on how to do a buyer's consultation.
Let's get started!
What is a Buyer's Consultation?
A buyer's consultation is an in-person meeting between you, the real estate agent, and your prospective buyer client. The meeting provides an opportunity to discuss the buyer's goals, the local market conditions, and the process of buying a home with you. It also allows you to showcase your expertise, demonstrate your value, and help the buyer have an enjoyable home purchase experience.
Pro Tips for a Successful Buyer's Consultation
Be efficient with time - Before the buyer's consultation meeting, ask them to email you the mortgage pre-approval letter or proof of funds for a cash purchase. Next, send a pre-consultation questionnaire. A simple Google Form with questions about their home buyer experience, budget, and timelines helps you prepare for the meeting.
Actively Listen - Engage with the buyer's responses, take notes, and ask follow-up questions to gain clarity.
Be Professional & Personable - Dress professionally and demonstrate your knowledge while maintaining a friendly, approachable tone.
Choose the location - Meet in a reasonably quiet space. Avoid meeting in noisy and distracting coffee shops.
10 Steps for an Effective Buyer's Consultation
Step 1: Welcome & Introduction
Greet your prospective clients with a warm introduction and give them a high-level overview of what you would like to share with them and the time blocked out for the meeting (ideally 30-45 minutes). Make your clients feel comfortable and heard. Share a bit about yourself, your experience, and why you love helping people find their next home. Ask them how many homes they have purchased before to gauge how deep you need to go with the talking points.
Step 2: Share Talking Points
Outline what you'll cover during the consultation, including:
- Current national and local market conditions
- An overview of the buying process
- Loan pre-approval process with a lender
- Your agency relationship and responsibilities
- Selecting their home-buying criteria
- Next steps after the consultation
Step 3: Discuss Market Conditions
Give your buyers a high-level overview of the national and local market conditions. Let them know what they can expect in the current market.
Share data about:
- Local inventory levels
- Average days on the market
- Sales-to-list price ratios (% under or over list price)
- Mortgage interest rates and their impact on prices and buyer demand
Helping buyers understand these factors will empower them to make informed decisions. Additionally, the information can set expectations on whether they can make an offer under asking or if they need to bid up the property's price to win the deal.
Step 4: Explain the Home Buying Process
Many buyers, especially first-time buyers, aren't familiar with the entire process. Use this time to break it down step-by-step and answer any questions. Be sure to ask in advance how many homes they have purchased and have many in your market. If they are experienced home buyers, refresh them, bring them up to speed, and see what your process looks like as their agent.
Key Points to Cover
- Pre-approval and financing - Explain how obtaining a lender's pre-approval letter is the first step (ideally, this will be complete before you even meet with them)
- Home search - Outline how you use the MLS to create their property search and how they can schedule a showing with you.
- Making an offer - Walk them through the reviewed paperwork, such as the Seller's Disclosure and negotiation process, including contingencies, deposits, fees, and inspections.
- Contract to closing - Share an overview of what happens during inspections, appraisal, and the general timeline from offer to closing.
Providing a clear roadmap will make your buyers feel confident and prepared. Consider creating a document summarizing the information they can take with them.
Step 5: Cover Loan Pre-Approval
Many buyers are eager to start viewing homes without determining their borrowing power. Stress the importance of being pre-approved for a loan or providing you with proof of funds for a cash deal before you spend time on property showings. A simple thing to say is that most sellers request that the buyer be pre-approved for financing before touring their home.
Talking Points
- Who to contact for mortgage pre-approval
- Documents needed for pre-approval (e.g., proof of income, employment verification, credit report)
- How pre-approval is generally needed before setting up a property search or touring homes
Educating buyers on this step ensures that their property search is set up within the correct price category and that they're ready to act quickly when they find the right property. As a buyer's agent, you don't want to show homes to a buyer they can't afford. Why? Because you're wasting your time and theirs and after seeing a few homes above their budget, it's difficult for them to become excited about the homes they can afford. Start with the pre-approval letter first before showing properties!
Step 6: Explain the Agency Relationship
Articulating the agency relationship is critical to learning how to do a buyer's consultation. It ensures that your clients understand how you, as their buyer's agent, will advocate for them throughout the home-buying process, confidentiality, and the value you provide.
The 2024 National Association of Realtors (NAR) lawsuit settlement has resulted in new rule changes on how buyer agents are compensated. You'll want to explain this latest change to all buyers and how it affects their home purchase.
Addressing the NAR Settlement Changes
Begin by acknowledging that there have been significant national regulatory changes for Realtors, particularly relating to buyer agent commissions. Explain that sellers are no longer advertising a 3% buyer's agent commission in MLS. The buyer agent commission is now considered a professional fee and a buyer's closing cost expense. You can explain that it's now up to you to negotiate a closing cost credit to the buyer paid by the seller, which may cover some or all of your fee.
Buyers may have heard about this shake-up for real estate agents and an end to 6% listing commission in the news headlines or from other real estate professionals. Taking the time to clarify how you work as their agent, the time you invest for your clients, and the value you provide will clarify what they are receiving for the fee.
For a quick way to learn about the NAR settlement rule changes and how you can best handle the conversations with your prospects, we've created a low-cost online NAR settlement training course that you can take 24/7.
Negotiating Buyer Closing Cost Credits - Reassure your client that you will work diligently to negotiate a buyer closing cost credit from the seller. This credit could potentially cover most or even all of your professional fee.
Example script: "I can craft an offer to purchase, and during negotiations, we can work on securing a closing cost credit from the seller to help offset or fully cover the cost of my professional fee. This way, we can reduce your out-of-pocket expenses. You'll know upfront what your closing expenses will look like before signing a contract. If the numbers are not right, you can always submit an offer on another home."
Explain What You Do for Your Fee
Reiterate how you, as a buyer's agent, work 20-100+ hours over 2+ months to help them with the home purchase from start to finish. Putting the multi-month timeline into perspective helps them understand why they are being charged a fee of thousands of dollars.
Selling Points - How You Provide Value for Your Fee
- Local knowledge
- Your time for consultation(s)
- Technology for MLS search and e-signature platform
- Saving them time by filtering through and previewing properties that meet their criteria and contacting listing agents.
- Multiple property showings
- Review of paperwork such as disclosures, flood plain maps, HOA docs, etc.
- Preparation of purchase offers
- Negotiating offers (likely several offers)
- Managing the process from contract to closing
- Attending the property inspection
- Being on call for your clients when they have questions...and more
Be sure to highlight how your expertise, happy clients, and level of service bring significant value to the table, making their home-buying journey smoother and more enjoyable.
Step 7: Ink a Buyer's Rep Agreement
Wrap up the consultation by having them sign a buyer representation agreement so you can fully onboard them as a client and continue the process. Reassure them that you're committed to making the process seamless and helping them find a home they'll love.
Step 8: Establish Search Criteria
Next, it's time to dive into what they want in a home. This step is essential for narrowing their options and tailoring the home search to their needs and preferences.
Ask detailed questions. Start by discussing their must-haves, wish lists, and nonnegotiable deal-breakers.
5 Sample Questions:
1. What's your ideal budget?
2. What type of home are you looking for (e.g., single-family, condo, townhome)?
3. What are your "must-have" features (e.g., number of bedrooms, square footage)?
4. What locations or neighborhoods are you interested in?
5. Are there any features you absolutely don't want?
Information to Collect
- Features like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, amenities, and location.
- Wish list items such as a pool, space for a home office, multiple parking spaces, extra storage, or updated finishes.
- Deal-breakers - Aspects they want to avoid, such as specific locations, layouts, or property condition.
Next, Perform a Live MLS Search
One of the most effective ways to refine the buyer's home criteria and save you time is by conducting a live search in the MLS during the consultation. Walk the buyer through the process, demonstrating the power of your MLS software to filter through thousands of listings.
Log into MLS and input their desired home features (e.g., budget, size, number of bedrooms). Define the geographic area based on commute times, schools, or neighborhood preferences. Add additional filters for special features, such as year build and wishlist items. Show the buyer how the search results look, look at the listings, and adjust the search filters as needed based on their feedback. Lastly, save the search to automate the delivery of listings to their email inbox.
Step 9: Explain Next Steps
Once the consultation wraps up, provide your buyers with a clear roadmap of what to expect next. The structure will help them feel confident and know how the home-buying process will progress. A big part of this involves explaining how they should schedule property showings with you and the channels for communication.
Share your property showing process. Consider implementing the samples below:
Have the buyer email you a lender's pre-approval letter (for financed purchases) or proof of funds (for cash purchases) before scheduling any property showings.
Ask buyers to email you the MLS numbers of any properties they find interesting. Look for red flags before scheduling a showing such as reviewing the Seller's Disclosure, survey, floodplain map and owner's associations documents.
Scheduling Showings in Groups - To maximize time efficiency, encourage scheduling property viewings in groups of 2-5 homes per appointment. Explain that seeing more than five properties in one session often overwhelms buyers, as the details of each home can start to blend together.
Pro Tip: Avoid traffic whenever possible. Schedule showings during times of the day that avoid heavy traffic, such as rush hour or areas that are congested on the weekend.
Step 10: Ask for Referrals
Even during an initial consultation, it's never too early to plant the seed for referrals. Happy clients are one of the best sources of new business. Use a natural, conversational approach, such as:
"If you know anyone else thinking about buying or selling, I'd love to help them too." or "Feel free to share my name with friends or family who might need a Realtor."
Final Thoughts
By following these steps, you can run an effective buyer's consultation that leaves clients feeling informed, supported, and excited to work with you. Remember, this meeting is your chance to shine and position yourself as the trusted expert who will help them navigate the home-buying journey with ease. Also, remember that they are shopping for a home, so the process should be fun. Do your best to keep the meeting structured yet conversational and relaxed. (this part will come in time after you've met with many prospects)
Did you find this guide on how to do a buyer's consultation helpful? We have much more to share to KickStart your real estate career! Explore our courses and affordable 1:1 agent coaching tailored to professionals like you for more insights and guidance.