We want to shop around

realtor

I have been getting calls from people living out of state who think they might want to buy or at least check out the possibility of buying a vacation home. Usually they do not know the area or what to expect so they want to shop around and explore their options. The first, or 5th or 10th, home I show them could be the perfect home for them but if they think there are unlimited possibilities they want to keep looking around. What do you do in a situation like that?

Stan Billue

Part of our Duties as a Sales Pro would be to make the Buying decisson as easy as possible for our Prospects. Get a list of what they wnat and don't want in a Vacation Home and then use your MLA Listings to compare Properties in your area. Make a list of each in their Price Range with the "wants" and "don't wants" of each to show your Prospect that you've done the "looking around" for them.

Have a "FANTA$TIC" Future!
Stan Billue, CSP

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Kelley Robertson

I suspect by your question that you have not used the questions presented by other experts in your last posting. Before you even think about showing someone a home, you need to ask them questions so practice asking the questions that were suggested in previously.

You also need to get a sense of how important this decision is to your prospect. If you don't deal with highly-qualified prospects you are going to waste a lot of time showing homes to people who only have a general interest in making a buying decision. You need to find out if they are working with deadlines and the importance of this is compared to other financial plans they have.

When people say they want to keep looking around, it is usually because they haven't seen the exact house they want. When my wife and I bought our current house, we went to over 70 open houses over an 8 month period. Not one agent asked us what we wanted in a house and had someone done this they could have pointed us in the right direction and dramatically cut our looking time. This would have made them stand out from their competition and increased their sales and commissions.

Show your prospect houses that give them what they want.

Skip Anderson

You need to lead the prospects through a process, not just show them homes. Each step of the process should be designed to create sales momentum. I know that's a very general answer, but most objections are best handled before the prospect verbalizes them...thus, a sales process!

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realtor

Assuming I was asking all the right questions about wants and needs--- what do you do when the customer thinks there are unlimited possibilities and wants to see as many of those possibilities as they can before they make a buying decision?

Skip Anderson

At what point are you finding out this information?

realtor

The customers tell me up front they are in town for a few days to check out different areas and see what is available.

I could show them the perfect home for them but if they think there MIGHT be something even better around the corner they want to keep looking around. They want to make sure they have not left any stone unturned.

Another thing is some of these potential buyers have already set up appointments with other agents to view homes they found on the agent's website which means more possibilities.

Some of them already have areas on their list of places to check out that we don't work in which mean more possibilities.

Jim Klein

It has been my experience with buyers that if they don't have an urgency to buy they will take up your time and possibly buy from another agent.

If there's an urgency to buy, get them to commit to you and then spend the few days with them and sell them a house.

If there's no urgency or they won't commit to working with only you, dump them and move on to the next.

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ianbrodie

If it's a small number of people doing this, then you need to accept that:

a) Some people are just like this. They feel uncomfortable if they don't explore every possible option just in case. There's a psychological effect known as the Zeigarnik Effect where uncompleted tasks make people feel tense and uncomfortable. Some people get this feeling if they haven't explored every available option open to them (I'm like this with websites - I have to click every link just to see what might be there).
b) These people are not great prospects - they will burn a ton of your time
c) Your job is to maximise your sales - not to sell to everyone (an in this case, waste your time trying to sell to peple who are going to burn a ton of time insted of moving on to better prospects).

On the other hand, if all your prospects are like this then you need to think about whether you really are asking the right questions...

Ian

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Ian Brodie
Get More Clients: The Selling Professional Services Blog

sfrenkel

Realtor,

In negotiation terms, your potential buyer is worried that other alternatives would have met their needs better (either in terms of the home or the value). They're concerned about having "buyer's remorse."

Some people will never get over this. However, it should be your job to minimize those experiencing this AND, for those who do, the effects (especially since if they have buyer's remorse and if they do find a home that would have made them happier, you lose future sales and referrals!).

Here's what I'd do: first and foremost, follow the advice from the other contributors here - make sure you understand your prospective buyer's needs and try to help them prioritize them - what are their must haves? What are their "nice to haves", etc.

THEN, don't just show them the houses you want to show them, print out listings for the range in the market - all the houses that might meet their needs. You can go further to print out what's sold in their range for the last six months (emails better - save some trees ). Give them as wide a view of the market, what's out there and for what prices as you can. The more educated they feel about the market and the more knowledge they have about what's out there, the more confident they'll be making a decision.

Keep in mind that your goal shouldn't be to make a sale in the few days they have - if you rush them, they'll feel the pressure and it will give them cold feet. Give them time. Let them look around. If the home you've shown them is the right one, they'll figure it out. If it's not, it doesn't benefit you or them to sell it to them (in the long run).

Always remember - your goal shouldn't be "making a sale." It should be helping your customers - if you do that, the sale (and many more to follow) will come naturally.

Good luck.
Stephen