With recent changes to REALTOR® rules, buyer agents must remember to be extra transparent and communicative with their clients. If you’re on a team, then practice sessions with your teammates during meetings are a must. Even better, center each of these roleplays around a specific theme or likely concern buyer agents might have. Some suggestions:
Rising insurance costs
You’ve probably seen plenty of headlines about Hurricane Helene and the damage it left across the Southeast. The event underscores the fact that it’s not only coastal areas that should fear climate change. Someone who’s already noticed? Insurance companies, who are pulling out of some areas entirely (or significantly raising premiums) in states with frequent global-warming disasters such as California, Florida, etc.
This problem isn’t going away, so get ahead of the curve. If your clients, like some reported buyers, think they should forgo insurance because of high rates, walk them through the consequences of that decision so it isn’t hastily made.
Mortgages being where they ‘should’
It’s a common refrain by economists in any macroeconomic update: mortgage rates aren’t coming back down to the 2% – 3% level where they stood during the first years of Covid, and around 6% is the new normal.
If your buyer client is waiting for a lower mortgage rate, then it’s time to break the harsh reality that the window of 2% – 3% mortgage rates has closed. To avoid steering the conversation into a total downer, you can in turn stress the recent decline in mortgage rates; that recent rates near 6% are as good as they have been recently and are already rising a bit, so it’s better not to wait.
The ‘right’ time to buy
Prospective homebuyers will (and should) be naturally cautious as they prepare to embark on the home-buying journey. While you obviously want to close a deal, you should never pressure them. For those who seem too gung-ho or uninformed, take the time to counsel them.
At the same time, if a buyer appears too cautious, share these tips on why they should buy now. Agents surveyed by RISMedia agree that the instability of mortgage rates and the chance to build equity are the best reasons for a buyer to pull the trigger. If you think your clients will need further convincing, schedule a team huddle to share ideas.
