There’s nothing worse than focusing on the wrong lead. Not only does it take you away from other work, but it also costs you time, energy, and money. It’s important to ask questions to connect with your leads, but it’s even more crucial to ask the hard-hitting questions; allowing you to qualify your leads before fully pursuing them. Are you wondering what questions you should ask? Here are a few you should ask every lead before qualifying them as a lead.
What Do You Know About the Real Estate Market?
Asking this question allows you to gauge just how much research your potential lead has done and how dedicated they genuinely are to sell or buy a property. Typically, a qualified lead is relatively knowledgeable about the real estate market and its process. Although, that isn’t a tried and true rule to follow. Your lead reading up on real estate allows the deal to move faster, as they’re less likely to be fazed by prices or business practices and are less hesitant overall. Plus, it gives you an idea of just how serious they indeed are.
What’s Your Reason for Buying/Selling?
If you want to guarantee the best experience possible, this is a question you need to know the answer to. Every type of lead requires a different level of touch and a different approach. When it comes to qualifying the lead, it’s said that potential leads who can give a straightforward answer are ready to buy or sell a property. The vaguer their answer, the lower the chance they’re a warm lead who might be prepared to bite in the future.
What Parts of the Selling Process Are Unclear?
Every lead has a reason holding them back. The key is to learn what that is. It may make the difference between whether or not you’re able to close the deal. Asking what parts of the process are unclear is an opportunity to strengthen your lead’s trust in you by filling in the blanks and offering yourself as a resource. It also drives home the feeling that you’re interested in their overall experience and finding the right property/buyer rather than just looking to make a sale. Lastly, it’s an opportunity to ease their mind about their decision. Those who are qualified leads tend to have a good grasp of the process and have few questions about each step and their role.
What is Your Budget/What Are You Looking to Make?
Budgets and expectations play a huge role in whether a person qualifies as a lead, especially if they’re not looking to budge on either. What qualifies them as a lead is their willingness to be flexible with their expectations and their budget. It’s not every day that everything is going to be as they want it, and they must understand this and can move forward without hang-ups about it.
If they’re buying, follow up your initial question by asking how much they can afford and how much they have saved up for a down payment. If they’re selling, find out their expectations, and how far they are willing to come down from it if necessary.
Do You Have a Timeline?
Learning your lead’s timeline is one of the first things you should ask when vetting them as a qualified lead. It’s not because you want to come off as rushing them, but because you want to know what time their expectations are and where they fall in your sales funnel. Once you have your answer, you can ask questions such as how long they’ve been looking to buy.
If they’ve just started thinking about buying, you’re looking at approximately 6-12 months before you’re able to close a deal. If you’re in it for the long haul, you can still consider them a qualified lead. If they’ve been searching for a while, you’re likely to close faster if they find the perfect property. Ultimately, their status as a qualified lead is dependent on your level of dedication to the long game.
With those looking to sell, the timeline gives you an idea of their expectation. If a lead has been trying to sell for a while, they might be a motivated seller, meaning they’re likely to sell at a price lower than market value. Here, you can ask when they’re looking to move. This determines how serious they are about selling. If they’re sure, then they qualify as a viable lead.
When Are You Available for a Meeting/Viewing?
A surefire way to qualify a lead is to ask about when you can meet to view the property or finalize plans. Be sure not to ask open-ended questions when trying to pin down a time and place to meet. Questions like “can you meet me?” give wiggle room for your leads to back out of set plans. Those who are eager to meet or ready to finalize their plans are typically leads that are worth pursuing.
What Kind of Properties Are You Looking For?
With this question, hot leads and qualified leads are the same. As buyers, qualified can express in detail what kind of house they’re looking for. These details can range from knowing which amenities they want to have in their new home, to ideal neighborhoods they want to live in, to how short they want their commute to be. Even if they only have broad strokes of what they’re looking for, don’t write them off. Digging a little deeper can paint a better picture of whether or not they’re worth pursuing.
Call Motivated Sellers: Helping You Qualify Leads
No agent wants to spend their time chasing leads. That’s precious time, money, and energy that gets wasted. By asking these questions, you can qualify leads and pursue the promising ones. If you don’t have the time to contact your leads, let Call Motivated Sellers take the lead. Our cold calling services can further vet your list.
Contact our team to get started today!