One of the questions that we get from Queens homebuyers when they’re starting out in their in their house hunt is, can’t you just show me houses? On an initial home buying conversation, a good agent will ask you what you’re looking for, get an idea of your timeline, and more often than not, they will suggest to schedule a buyer consultation so that you can discuss further.
Agents will usually ask you to meet in their office, at a coffee shop, or they may offer to visit you at your home. Either way, whenever our agents ask to schedule a buyer consultation some buyers will ask the question, do we really need to meet for a consultation? Or, can’t you just show me houses?
For some reason this initial consultation buyer consultation escapes people and for many potential home buyers, they seem to not understand the importance of having this consultation. The buyer consultation usually takes an hour or so and in this meeting, you and your agent can talk through all of your criteria, goals, ideas, etc. One of the common responses to an agent requesting to schedule a buyer consultation is, can’t you just go and show me houses?
Now, can an agent just go out and show you properties, definitely. Can you find some agents that will do that? Yes you will. Most of the time these will be agents who are not very experienced, or are just trying to get a deal. They might just ask you a few questions, send you some listings, and then start showing you properties. What we’ve seen in our own experience is that the best buyer agents, and the agents who are very good at finding their buyers the right property, always work by consultation.
High producing buyer agents typically work by consultation as a first step so if you speak to a good buyer’s agent, and ask them this question “can you just show me houses?”, most of the time their answer will be no because a good buyer’s agent just does not operate that way. A good and effective buyer’s agent typically will say first thing we need to do is sit down and meet face to face (i.e. buyer consultation) because they understand that if they don’t sit with you and actually ask you all of the questions that they need to ask, then they will most likely end up just wasting a lot of time, both yours and theirs.
What happens if you view properties without a consultation is that you will end up seeing a lot of properties that don’t meet your criteria and/or needs. The worst thing for a buyer’s agent, or for a buyer, is to walk into a property and as soon as they walk into the front door, immediately tuen around because they don’t like the house. A good buyer’s agent will suggest to sit down to talk through all of your ideas and find out exactly what you’re looking for. Then once they have done the buyer consultation, they would go in and start to narrow down the properties for you. Once they have a list of ideal properties, they will work with you to schedule appointments to go see those properties in person.
Following this process will usually make the best use of your time, of the your agent’s time, and it will make your home buying process much more effective. So to answer the question, can’t we just show you properties? The answer to that is yes, but if you speak to a good buyer’s agent or an experienced agent, you can expect their answer to be no we cannot show you any properties without sitting down For a consultation first.
Good agents understand the importance of a buyer consultation, and after reading this, we hope you do too. The buyer consultation is an important step because it is where your agent will learn everything about the property that you are looking for. It also allows you and the agent to determine whether or not you would like to work together.
Well, hope you found this information helpful, If you have any questions or need any real estate help, here or in the 50 states, please Contact Us.