How To Overcome Buyer Hesitation In The Current Real Estate Market

If you’re a real estate agent, chances are you’ve experienced some form of buyer fatigue or buyer apprehension before, and you may be experiencing the same with multiple clients given our current market challenges of higher interest rates and extreme low inventory. Maybe they’ve lost out on more than a few homes. Maybe you’ve shown 1,311 houses to the same buyer with no success and they are tired. Fear is usually the cause of these feelings of uncertainty and doubt. People will not act when in a place of fear or unknown outcome. The human brain is designed to protect us from danger, so when someone feels they may make a poor financial decision or may jeopardize their families’ basic need for shelter, instincts kick in and they retreat from action. Education and information will always be the solution to counteract these feelings. If you feel your buyers growing weary, try to focus on these tips to help support and empower your buyers to stay the course:

Honesty is always best- answering your clients’ concerns and questions about the current market or any particular home they tour with brutal honesty will help them put more trust in you over time.

Don’t sugarcoat what they need to know- buying a home takes a good amount of money and, most importantly, time. Remind them that everything worth having takes hard work.

Share everything- be transparent and share proactively to empower your clients to make the best financial decisions. Surprise in real estate generally is not a good thing!

Show them the bigger picture- coach your clients on how homeownership creates wealth and investment opportunities. A homeowner creates 40x more of a net worth for themselves than a renter. Need some scripts on this? Reach out to me and I can help!

Weigh the pros and cons- examine all possible outcomes with your buyers. It’s important to focus on the positive, but spend time examining the possible negative outcomes they might face. Your experiences with past clients can give you great means to educate your current clients.

Remind them of their WHY- emotional commitment is the single best buy in. Your clients will have a triggering experience that prompted their move towards buying a home…find out what that reason is (growing family, desire for more space to host family get-togethers, downsizing to travel) Keep them on track to their dreams by reminding them of it often.

Here are 2 scripts that can also help in conversations:

CALMING THE NERVES:

“Buying a home is a big deal. I understand you may feel overwhelmed and anxious about making such a large purchase. It’s absolutely natural to feel that way and practically all of my clients have felt the same at some point in our journey.

It helps to think of this home purchase as more of an investment than just a purchase. Buying a home will help you and your family build equity and create a nest egg that you can use in the future. Equity helps families create generational wealth. So, you’re not spending your money, you’re investing it.

And if this home turns out not to be the home you really want long term, you’ll be able to use the equity you’ve built to buy another home that fits your needs even better.”

REMEMBER YOUR WHY:

“I understand how (whatever the situation is) might make you feel anxious or worried. But the important thing is to remember why you’re buying a home. You told me in our initial meeting that you wanted to buy a home because (remind them of their WHY). And that’s a great reason to buy a home in any market. So, if that’s still your dream, does (whatever the issue is) change that?”

Remember as a realtor- you are a coach, educator, counselor and a pilot. I remember a quote from Abraham Lincoln, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the ax.”

Be the author of the plan and you’ll be able to guide your buyers through this market successfully!

Let’s Go!