A friend of mine just bought a house a few months ago.

In the 10 months leading up to the purchase, he told me he met at least five different Realtors who could have helped him close the deal. But every time it came up during casual conversation, none of those agents were interested.

Why?

Because when he spoke to those agents, the purchase was a “few months down the road” and in their minds, he didn’t warrant their attention. Apparently, he told them he was doing some online research as to where he wanted to live, and that once he decided on the area, he was going to start looking to buy.

Now, conventional wisdom says those agents did the right thing to leave him alone. Conventional wisdom says if a person isn’t ready to buy right now, then all they’re going to do is waste your time, money and effort driving around town.

Well I’ve got news for you. Conventional wisdom is wrong, and in the case of the not-quite-ready buyer, it’s even hurting your business.

Imagine if one of those agents had listened to my friend, asked him a couple of good questions regarding his purchase. Does he have kids, and if so what type of school system is he looking for? How long a commute is he willing to accept going to work? Either of those questions could have been easily followed up with an e-mail containing some listings mirroring that information. Think how that would have given an agent a “leg up” on the competition when my friend was ready to buy?

But instead, all five Realtors lost my friend's business because conventional wisdom says not to waste your time with someone who’s not ready to buy right now.

That's because they know there are plenty of Window Shoppers just waiting to suck the time of an unsuspecting agent, and obviously those are people you want to stay away from.

But don’t automatically discount a prospective customer just because they’re not actively looking at homes right now. Instead, ask a few questions to gauge their seriousness, and then act accordingly based on that information. For example, you might ask:

• When are you thinking about buying a home?
• Have you been pre-qualified for a loan?
• What made you decide to move to a new area?

If you get some “wishy-washy” answers like “I’m not sure,” or “We don’t know” or “I haven’t gotten that far yet,” then maybe you have reason to steer clear, but even these vague buyers can be retained with little effort through a newsletter or listing alerts, or other automated tools. On the other hand, if you get some solid answers, you can apply your automated stay-in-touch technologies and add personal phone calls to invite them to home tours, buyers' seminars or other special events of interest. I’d recommend keeping in touch with this person, even though conventional wisdom might say otherwise. He’s definitely ready to buy… just not right now.

And by the way, when you’re following up with this person, the email doesn’t have to be too pushy. How about something like this?

Brian –

My name is Melissa Myers and I met you at the Chamber event earlier this week. During our conversation, you mentioned you were looking for a change of residence, and one of the areas you were interested in was Peachtree City.

I know you’re not officially in the market to buy right now, but I just wanted to shoot you a couple of listings that hit some of the key criteria we talked about. If these look like houses you’d like to learn more about, please contact me directly at 404.434.2826.

In the meantime, I’ll touch base with you in a month or two to see how the search is going. Take care!

How long would that take, including finding the listings and typing up the e-mail? About 15 minutes.

What would you do if the buyer didn’t call you back? Put him in your contact management system and set the timer for one or two months out.

How would the buyer feel after reading that e-mail? Great. To the point where he’d probably want to do business with you if you played your cards right.

Why? Because you not only listened to his needs, but you also took the time to send him something that addressed them. Imagine how much easier it will be to get that business two months down the road when he's ready to buy.

Published: June 10, 2004

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As a popular speaker and author of the resource How to Get More Business in Today's Tough Market, Brian specializes in helping busy agents get more leads and close more deals - even in a market as "challenging" as this. For a free report on 2 Easy Ways to Get More Business in Today's Tough Market, just email my office and we'll send it right over.