Law and Order and CSI are really some great shows on television.  There always seems to be one of them on every night.  If you have watched these shows before they do a great job of taking you through the crime and usually even getting the bad guy.   They often feature an interrogation where they will just hammer on the suspect until the confess.  Two police officers proceed to tell the suspect what they did, and ask load questions like “isnt’ that how you killed her?”.  Strangely enough, the suspect seems to cave, somehow forgetting to ask for an attorney. 

I think sometimes we approach our very own buyer prospects this way.  OK, so we don’t get them into a room with little light and play “good cop / bad cop”, but too often we try to convince our buyers that it is a good time to buy or convince them they need to offer higher in order for their offer to get accepted.  Unlike television and the movies, rarely does this method work.  The one thing the shows do have right is the fact that they are asking questions. 

Asking the right questions

We can’t really ask loaded questions though because people will feel trapped.  The real art to asking questions is to get the prospect to come to their own conclusion (one that you have helped lead them to).  In this changing market where the media uses nation wide housing numbers and everyone seems to apply that to a local market it is extremely important to be asking the RIGHT questions.

It’s almost a disservice to refer to these as buyer scripts, as they are really buyer questions, but let’s get into it!

  • Buyer: I am waiting for the market to get better
  • Agent: That’s great, what sign is going to tell you the market is better?

Make sure to wait for their answer :).  Most often they have no clue what they are waiting for.  Even better they may say, “Well I guess when prices go up” to which you can then proceed to help them to get the deal before pricing goes up.

  • Buyer: I will wait for the price to come down.
  • Agent: I can certainly understand that, what price did you want it at?

Doing this, puts the buyer in the driver seat to get the price that they have in their head but are scared to ask for.  You will be amazed at the responses. Even if they say something drastically low, you can give it a shot because honestly in this day and age you just don’t know what will be accepted!

Taking time to ask questions to help buyers understand their own goals is one of the best ways to have more fun with real estate.  It’s a lot easier asking questions then trying to beat a confession out of someone that it really is a good time to buy. 

I can’t wait to hear some feedback on how these questions help you in your business.

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