Getting Buyers Pre-approved is all part of your systems for every client

Hi everybody, Cheryl Knowlton coming at you with today’s Dynamite Tip of the Day. Today’s tip has to do with making certain that your buyers are pre-approved before you take them out and show them any listed property. There are two reasons for this … well, actually there’s three. Off the top of my head. Number one, you need to abide by what is called the Equal Professional Services Model, and I teach courses on this that are hours in length, and so we don’t have enough time here for me to explain the whole thing.

You need to have systems in your business

Bottom line, you need to have systems in your business that you could demonstrate to anyone who came and took a look at your business, that you have the exact same plan and the exact same systems that you follow for every single client. That you treat every single person the same way. That you don’t take a certain class of people, that are protected under the federally protected classes … maybe a particular race, particular color out and show them property without being pre-approved and you don’t treat other people that way. That would actually be a violation of federal fair housing law. It’s also a very, very poor business practice.

For reason number two, until you know that they are pre-approved with a reputable lender, they’re not actually buyers. They’re what we lovingly refer to as tire kickers. People in this country are obsessed with real estate, and they watch shows endlessly on TV. There are endless apps, HGTV, Property Brothers, all kinds of fix-it or flip it and all this cool stuff. People love real estate. They are not actually buyers unless they are pre-approved with a lender, and they can buy right now. So please do not take any buyers through a listed property until you know that they are actually buyers.

Don’t waste valuable time taking buyers without pre-approval

Third of all, it is a colossal waste of your time, potentially, to take those people through, and even worse, could pose a safety risk to you and/or to the seller. If those people are intent to do you harm, are intent to steal from the seller, whether it’s prescription drugs, cash, guns, anything else that they find in the property, or worse, they open windows and come back and they start squatting in the property, prior to actually taking ownership of the property, that’s a difficult conversation to have with the seller. “Hi, there’s been an inordinate amount of interest in your property, that’s the good news, the bad news is someone’s actually living in it.” We don’t want that for you. We don’t want that hard conversation, and we don’t want that for your seller. So for at least those three reasons please make sure and have all buyers pre-approved with a capable, qualified mortgage lender, before you take them out.