Common Challenges of Working with First Time Home Buyers

Posted by Premier Commission on August 30, 2016 in Selling Real Estate

Working with first time home buyers can be a stressful situation. They’re anxious, terrified, and often arrive with mom and dad in tow for additional support. They typically have little understanding of issues like tax credits, investment risk, and mortgage choices, so they tend to count on you to answer questions about the overall home buying process. However, if you have techniques to overcome the challenges and focus on the rewards of watching the thrill of first time home ownership, you’ll overcome any challenges you face easily enough.

Ignorance is Not Bliss

Working with first time home buyers often means coping with a substantial case of Dunning-Kruger effect. The less they know, the more confident they are in their views. A novice buyer is often an unrealistic negotiator, offering absurd figures for prime property. When you’re trying to sell a house to a new buyer, you’re likely to lose sales on a string of homes due to unrealistic offers.

Solutions:

• When you’re working with first time home buyers, try to be as helpful as possible in informing them of their options without making decisions for them. If they want to make a lowball offer on a property, let them do so and learn from the process.
• Offer novice buyers material that they can use to educate themselves about the home buying process and your local market. Listings, investment analyses, and mortgage calculators are perfect for this.

Indecision

Working with first time home buyers comes with plenty of indecision, and if you’re not careful, you could lose a lot of valuable time to them.

• Go straight to the heart of the problem. Give them space to communicate how they feel and what’s causing their indecisiveness. Listen actively by telling them how you perceive what they’ve said. This ensures you’re both on the same page.
• Clarify their needs early on. Spend time digging into their dreams with the help of a buyer questionnaire form. Deal with any objections directly, managing expectations if they’re unreasonably high.
• Encourage a sense of urgency. The housing market is constantly in flux, so today’s prices are rarely tomorrow’s.
• Clarify their needs further by separating homes into niches. This way you can reduce the number of properties they view, cutting down on indecision simultaneously.

Third Party Opinions

Friends and family “advisers” are almost guaranteed when you’re working with first time home buyers because they feel unsure of themselves. Trusted reinforcements are usually brought into all realtor communication, amplifying confusion and increasing your workload.

Solutions:

• Don’t discuss client issues with, or carry messages to, third parties on your client’s behalf. Your loyalty should remain firmly with your client. If necessary, hold all discussions with the entire family in the same room so that client and parents can discuss issues directly with one another.

Most solutions to client relationship problems can be found by exercising a dash of empathy. Putting yourself in their shoes lets you puzzle out a solution that will work for them. If you’re struggling with novice buyers and need funding to carry you through to the sale, contact us.

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