Is Your Home Buyer Qualified? 6 Simple Questions to Ask

Finding a qualified home buyer can sometimes feel like searching for a house key in a hay stack. Real estate agents waste too many unpaid hours digging through dead-end leads and carting around tire-kicking clients in hopes of uncovering motivated buyers from the rough.

Working with clients who are ready to buy — and have the financial ability to do so — is key to growing your business. The faster you can identify these motivated buyers, the more efficient and successful you’ll be.

Asking these six questions will help you separate qualified home buyers from the rest of the pack.

1. Are you working with another agent?

After a Saturday afternoon chock full of driving around your supposed new clients from one open house to another, the last thing you want to find out is that they are already working with another agent. Get this question out of the way early in the interest of keeping your free time and gas budget intact.

2. What’s your price range?

Find out how much your potential clients can afford. If they are pre-qualified or have cash in hand, then you know they are serious. If not, all roads should funnel to your preferred mortgage lenders. If they balk at the idea of getting approved for a loan before starting to look at houses, you might want to reconsider taking them on as a client.

Tip: Getting pre-approved with a lender typically takes 24 to 48 hours, but home buyers can now get a pre-approval letter within minutes on Zillow.

3. What’s your time frame?

How long have your clients been looking and when do they want to move? Home buyers who are just getting started with their search will probably require a longer time commitment than ones who already have several months of house hunting under their belts. With that said, beware of the dreaded buyers who have been browsing for years on end with no real intent to move. Be prepared for the long haul if they don’t have a timeline or sense of urgency.

4. Why are you looking for a new home?

What is motivating your potential clients to move? A pressing need, such as making space for a growing family, shaving hours off the daily commute, or downsizing to prepare for retirement, will help solidify and speed up the home buying process.

5. What are your goals?

What is your clients’ dream home and, more importantly, can you make it a reality? You don’t want to work with buyers who envision themselves in a four-bedroom rambler with a water view when they can barely afford a one-bedroom condo outside of town. Knowing their goals will give you better insight into their expectations. If they have unrealistic expectations, save yourself the headache and let them go.

6. What are your biggest challenges?

Identify some of the pain points your buyers are encountering in their home search or in working with other agents. Their concerns and frustrations can tell you a lot about who they will be as a client. Assess the obstacles they are facing. What do you bring to the table that will help them avoid or surpass these problems if they arise in the future?

Obviously, you never want to turn away new business by peppering potential clients with a slew of questions like a robotic interrogator. Easing these topics naturally into early conversations with home buyers is essential. Investing the time to let them tell their story at the start will help you form an opinion of whether they are the right type of clients for you in the long run.