How To Prescreen Potential
Buyers For A Lease Option
By Tim Bruxvoort
When a potential buyers calls you will describe the
house with all the pertinent details. I find it helps to have the details
written out and placed in a file where you can easily get at it. When you
start selling multiple
properties it gets difficult to keep track of them all. I find it helps to do a
very quick run through of the property details with callers and then get to the
rent price quickly because you can end up wasting a lot of time talking to
people who can’t afford your house. After you give them your rent price, then
start with question one below.
During the call you will want to
work in the following questions:
- “Are you looking to buy or just rent?”
You need to
quickly screen out people who just want to be renters.
- “What kind of monthly payments are you looking
for?”
You need to screen callers out quickly with this
question. If they can’t afford the house they are calling about, then add them
to your buyers list database to make sure you can call them if you find what
they can afford.
- “Have you saved up any money for a down payment?”
You may get answers like, “a
little,” which usually means next to nothing and they won’t qualify for a Lease
Option. Or you may get an answer like “yeah I have some money,” which could mean
anywhere from a little to a lot. People never want to tell you how much they do
have so you’ll have to work it out of them by saying the following.
“A lot of times people can
qualify for a loan and they don’t even know it. Knowing how much money you have
to put down will help me determine if I can get you qualified to purchase this
home, or whether we need to use a Lease Option.”
- “Do you consider your credit to be good, fair, or
poor?”
People can usually give you a fairly accurate
picture of their credit with this question. Even if they tell you their credit
is poor, that may not be a reason to reject them. If they want to buy the house
you can always get a mortgage broker involved to tell you what they need to do
to improve their credit.
- “How much are you paying where you’re living now?”
If they say they can afford a $1300 payment and
they are only paying $600 now, you need to find out why they think they can
afford a big jump in living expenses.
Once you have answers to these questions you can decide
whether or not to let the potential buyer see the property if they are still
interested and they can afford it.
Don’t forget to get their name and phone number in
case you want to call back later to tell them something you forgot or to check
on why they weren’t interested in your house. If you can get these details then
maybe you can find out what they didn’t like and fix it.
Tim Bruxvoort
8161 Highway 100,
#194
Office: 615-662-4141
Nashville, TN 37221-4213
Fax: 615-301-8609
Email:
timbrux@remedybuyers.com
Web site: www.remedybuyers.com
www.homebasedriches.com
www.commercialrealestateinsider.com
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