Empower Consumers to Make Better Real Estate Decisions with Confidence

Nearly 100% of consumers start their home buying or selling journey online. With tech being more prevalent than ever in shaping consumer behavior, it’s clear that consumers have a wealth of knowledge — right at their fingertips.

In today’s market, they’re researching market predictions, mortgage rate fluctuations, a potential recession, and what a buyer’s or seller’s market actually means. With all this knowledge, it’s no surprise that people may be fearful and risk-averse to buying or selling.

They need to know ways to best navigate changes and feel empowered to make confident decisions. 

How can you help ease this hesitation and get these buyers and sellers off the fence?
 

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

It’s not just the buyers and sellers navigating the endless knowledge in this shifting market — you’re working hard to stay aware, up to speed, and knowledgeable on these changes, too.

In addition to being an expert in your local area, you also need to be an expert on what’s happening on a national scale and how it affects real estate in every aspect. Equipping yourself with this knowledge will allow you to tackle any questions or concerns from buyers or sellers head-on. This will help ease their fears and ensure they feel comfortable and confident. Providing them with this expertise and any clarifications also helps you empower the consumer.

As you go into meeting your buyers or sellers, be prepared to “meet them where they are.” There’s a lot of information — and misinformation — out there. What’s happening on a market scale may not translate equally to local market conditions.

By putting yourself in your consumer’s shoes and operating from their perspective, you can get a good grasp on how to best prepare to translate the local market to assuage their fears.

Remember: the goal is to drive confidence in these consumers with real-life education and examples to empower their buying or selling journey.
 

Arm Yourself with Data

Now that you’ve gotten your clients up to speed on the current state of the market and potential places it can go, you want to shift their attention to what’s actually happening in your local market.

Show and provide them with real, current data focused on your state, region, and specific market. Walk them through how macro market factors have changed things, but also shed light on the possibilities that still exist. Steering them away from the doom and gloom offered by news headlines. Instead, turn them towards local-level data to help ease their hesitations and give them a clearer, more realistic picture of what they’re facing.

From your perspective, it’s critical you have a solid grasp on market statistics so you can confidently explain them to others. Run specific market reports using data from your local MLS. Make it clear to your clients that you understand where the national market is heading, and how that impacts or even differs from what is going on in their own neighborhood.
 

Show You Care

Your clients are inundated with endless information from countless and they need you to connect the dots for them.

Untangle the jumble of information and break down what it means to the consumer. The data may be ever-changing, but it’s critical that you stay on top of these changes and updates. Consumers are counting on you to walk them through it, hand in hand.

It’s also key to equip yourself with examples that they can relate to and simple ways to distill concepts, data, and facts down to simpler terms.

Above all else, listen. Really listen to their needs, goals, concerns, and driving forces. What motivates them? Taking the time to listen and understand your clients on a deeper level establishes trust and builds their confidence. Don’t let them fear one of their biggest transactions — show them you’re here to help, and you care and understand.
 

Calm Their Fears

To agents, buying and selling a house is small potatoes: you’re in the trenches every day, and it’s routine at this point.

But for a first-time homebuyer or a retired couple downsizing, these are major life decisions and big changes. And especially in today’s market, hesitation, concern, and plain old fear is rampant.

To help calm these fears, and connect with your clients to boost their confidence, take time to ask key questions like:

• How can I make this process easier for you?
• What’s a burning question about the market that you have?
• Tell me your top 3 concerns about putting your house on the market.

Always be honest — consumers appreciate when you are upfront. And while you don’t need to sugarcoat, make sure you’re delivering your answers with some degree of gentleness. Make sure you also avoid using language that sounds manipulative or salesy. Focus on delivering a personalized, hands-on, expertise-driven experience in order to build trust and ease fears.

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