I recently sent a referral to one of my favorite agents I’ve worked with. She’s a very competent agent and has been in the business for over 10 years, so I felt pretty confident that my referral would be happy with her.

But something happened when they set up their first appointment that they never even ended up meeting each other! I lost the referral, and my agent friend ended up wasting a few hours of her time and gas money because of these 5 common mistakes. I’m not angry about the situation, but it is definitely a good opportunity to remind everyone what NOT to do when meeting buyers for the first time.

Here are the 5 common mistakes most agents make:

1. Arranging to meet at a house instead of the office or other public place: The agent I referred to had an appointment to meet them at a house they saw pictures of and were interested in. This is a HUGE mistake with people you are first meeting, especially if it’s not a house you’ve previewed. Pictures can be deceiving - and many buyers will drive by and turn around and go right back home if it doesn’t live up to their expectations. It’s also a missed opportunity to spend time talking to your new prospective buyers in the car and making them feel comfortable in working with you.

2. Not Taking a Test Drive First: You should always preview the homes you are going to show to your buyers for the first time and make sure you can successfully drive there without getting lost. You can’t always trust the pictures you see on the MLS or the driving directions the listing agent gave you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone out on test runs and despite my directions and maps I cannot find the house anywhere.  Agents sometimes put in wrong zip codes or wrong street names so you can’t trust a house to be where you think it is based on the information you read on the MLS. By taking a test run you can avoid wild goose hunts and also seem more knowledgeable about the area to your prospective buyers. 

3. Running 5 minutes late: My referral was a half an hour early for their appointment. The agent was 5 minutes late. The customer got impatient and left before the agent even arrived. Always show up to your appointments at least 10-15 minutes early. If you are running late and can’t do anything about it, call the customer 10 minutes before you are supposed to arrive so they know you are still on your way.

4. Having only one house to show them: If you only have one house to show them, you’re not going to get a good idea of what they are looking for and they’re going to think you can’t find them anything and are a horrible real estate agent. Always show them something else, even if it’s not exactly what they are looking for or a little bit over their price range. Tell them you know it’s not exactly what they want, but you want to show it to them anyway and that it may take a few weeks before a house that has everything they want comes on the market. Make sure you remind them you usually know houses will be for sale before they are even listed in most cases.

5. Going outside of your primary market area: Never show a house that is more than 30 minutes away from your office the first time. First of all, you will not know that area as well as you know your primary market so you will be more likely to get lost. Secondly you waste a lot of gas and time without knowing exactly what this client is looking for. If they have their heart set on one that is out of your primary market, tell them the soonest you can show that specific house is Friday because of it’s location, but you’d be happy to meet with them and see other houses on Wednesday or Thursday.

Hopefully by avoiding these 5 common mistakes real estate agents make when meeting buyers for the first time you won’t find yourself in similar situations!

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