@Super - re: qualifying the customer properly - **absolutely**!

@Perky - in my area (which is all I can speak to) 90% of the sellers are unrealistic in their pricing - even if you show them the numbers and explain the market to them and ask them if they've seen the news (me being facetious, of course - but you get the point). They want what they want. I turn down 9 out of 10 sellers in this market because they won't let me help them (and there are plenty of other agents out there who will list it for whatever they'd like and say "that sounds, GREAT! HOORAY! Look at my overpriced listing and my soon-to-be disappointed seller...).

I wouldn't recommend jumping for a buyer (or anyone, for that matter) - I pre-qual them. Are they working with a lender? do they have a pre-approval or proof of funds? This comes first before we start working in earnest. I've learned my lessons. I had a guy snap his fingers at me once and say "I'll get approved like THAT!"...he never bought anything...I pretty much knew he wouldn't as soon as he balked at the idea of getting (gasp!) pre-approved for a loan.

As a general rule, I find 90% of buyers right now are happy to do it "the right way" compared to only 10% of sellers. So...based on that, I tend to put the vast majority of my efforts into working with buyers rather than with sellers. A seller costs you money every month - serious buyer's cost me money for a couple of days, maybe a week at most...and if they're willing to take the time to get me a pre-approval, proof of funds, or some other commitment, chances are they're serious about buying (i.e. I recoup my investment). Don't get me wrong, I'll take a realistic seller any day of the week and I'll rock it like nobody's business (my last listing sold in 4 days with 4 offers in on it) - but for the most part, sellers are money pits in this market and you won't recoup your investment.

I agree with you 100% that someone has to have the listings in order for the buyers to buy something. I just find that I'd rather let all the other agents waste their time/money on unrealistic sellers and I'll just cherry pick the homes that I show my buyers from the available inventory.

@Greene - re: referrals instead of buyers...what about taking those 10 referrals that brought you $10,500 and handling them all yourself and making $42,000 with a few more hours put in per buyer... - sorry, I like my way bettah

ManFromTheBand

You must be busy too. This post is pretty old for AO.

I am juggling about 12 qualified buyers by myself right now and am putting in very long days, so I know how to get them to call and qualify them. I guess my point was that the time I'm spending driving folks around, handling paperwork, staying on the coop agent and managing the calendar for 12 qualified buyers could be better spent increasing that number to 12 to 24, 36 and so on. I'm already averaging working with about three clients per Saturday. I'm told there's a guy out in our Cobb County office that did over $300K (in 2007) by generating leads all day and then just referring them out at a 25% cut. I've already referred out two this week because I could not give them the type of customer service they deserved.

I'm not trying to recruit here, but ideally these leads would be passed on to people in my downline so that more money could be made. For now, I'm just going to keep them and this busy schedule because there are a few things the family would like to do this year and we need the $$$.

Yes Greene this is the reason I am starting to add agents to my brokerage. Most struggle with lead generation and that has always been one of my best attributes.

Referred leads sometimes have a higher chance of closing because that agent doesn't have much business and can hyper focus on that buyer.

I have seen agents that will call buyers endlessly and move mountains for them but can't find a lead to save their life.

I just want to hand off the leads,collect my fee,and be broker support. Then I will soley focus on commercial real estate and my investments.

real salespeople always find their own way...