Not every inspection attendee is a potential purchaser. By separating the serious buyers from casual browsers, agents can tailor their strategy and prove their expertise to win vendors’ trust.
Identifying genuine buyers early requires agents to actively engage with purchasers, assess whether they had done due diligence, and use tools to track which stage of the property journey they were at.
Belle Property Surry Hills principal, James Perlowski, said that generally around 20 per cent of people who enquired about properties actually turned up to inspections.
He said, out of those people, only 10 per cent usually wanted to proceed with the sale, making it essential for agents to know who was serious to tailor their strategy.
“It’s my job to relay back to the vendor who’s interested, how seriously are they interested, and what’s their timing around purchasing?”, Perlowski told REB.
“Do they want to move forward today? Are they happy to come to auction? Because then that will form part of how we make a decision around what we do on the selling side.”
Finances and due diligence
Perlowski said the most important way to identify genuine buyers was by checking whether they had their finances in order, such as a pre-approval, or if they had already sold their previous property and were looking to buy.
“I think that’s probably a really good starting point.”
“Make sure there’s confirmation around the fact that they’ve got funding ready to go, whether that be through the bank or through a mortgage broker.”
Additionally, he said the level of due diligence the prospective buyer was undertaking could easily signal whether they were considering purchasing.
“This could include attending second inspections, requesting private inspections, organising a building and pest or a strata report, and engaging with the legal conveyancer about reviewing a contract.”
Perlowski said that buyers having done all the right checks usually meant they were ready to be involved in negotiations.
“We’ll notice some buyers are taking contracts on multiple properties, that’s a pretty good key early sign that we can identify if they’re starting to genuinely look to buy.”
Engaging with buyers
At open homes, Perlowski said agents often had a good opportunity to gauge which stage buyers were at in their journeys by simply speaking with them.
“Just ask them the right questions around: have they looked at a few properties today? What’s their situation?”
“And then secondly, working out are there any other properties they’ve missed out on recently, or bid on at auction or pre-auction?”
Perlowski said many browsers were happy to have a discussion about their situation and let the agent know their criteria for a property.
“Typically, you’ll find that if buyers are more interested, they’ll have a lot more questions so you’ll have a lot more dialogue with them.”
On the other hand, he said there were sometimes buyers who revealed fewer details, whether deliberately holding their cards close to their chests or simply being more reserved.
“Sometimes it’s about understanding that every buyer’s different, and respecting that maybe they’re just reserved, but also making sure you’re communicating with them if there’s been any other updates from other parties.”
Perlowski also said there were usually clear visual signs from buyers that they were interested, which could include walking around the whole property and examining features in detail.
He added that interested buyers generally asked to be kept updated as to whether there had been offers made.
“Then if things do start to genuinely move forward with offers, at that point, that’s when you’ll know pretty quickly whether they’re just wanting to know the outcome or if they’re actually genuinely wanting to be kept in the loop.”
Technology
Perlowski said technology also played a significant role, with his team using a centralised database to track which stage buyers were at in their property search.
“We get notified when someone downloads a building report or a strata report, that’s a key metric. We want to make sure that the buyer’s involved all the way through to the end.”
“We keep tabs for, have they taken a contract? Have they purchased a report? Are they an ongoing interested party? Do we need to follow them up?”
Perlowski said that, within the system, his team could also mark buyers as “cold, warm or hot”.
“That’s a really good system that we use to ensure, do I need to follow up with this particular buyer? Have they taken certain documents? Therefore, we can relay that back to the vendor.”
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