Buying a house for the first time is a significant life milestone for many people. Yet, that doesn’t take away from the fact that everything leading up to it can be daunting: from financial preparations to finding the best property, to eventually signing their name to a big contract.
As an agent, you play a vital role in guiding first-time buyers through the process with confidence and ease. Here are some tips to help you better work with this crowd.
Bring Clarity to the Process
First-time buyers are often unfamiliar with the real estate process and associated jargon, and the abundance of information online oftentimes only complicates things. The good news is that you have the expertise and the market knowledge to serve as their trusted advisor.
When working with clients, give them an overview of the real estate process, including key stages, timelines, and priorities. Introduce technical terms like insurance, loan fees, and closing costs, among others. It can also be helpful to brief them on market trends, including local inventory levels and pricing trends, to set realistic expectations going forward.
During client meetings, it’s helpful to use visual aids like presentations, infographics, or diagrams to communicate this information effectively. To avoid overloading your clients with information, outside of meetings, you can use a CRM like Raptor to create email drip campaigns tailored to first-time home buyers. These campaigns gradually send out educational content or material you’ve created, including tips, checklists, FAQs, or short explanations to help them understand the process.
You can personalize these campaigns so the information sent out aligns with the concerns or questions you might have gathered from conversations with them. Raptor enables you to record and save detailed notes on the profiles of each client, in the Contacts module, so you don’t forget key requests or conversations with clients.
Another effective way to make use of your CRM to make the process clearer for them is to set up automated tasks, deadlines, and documentation review reminders. This not only helps in keeping track of progress but also demonstrates consistent and timely follow-up with their journey.
Help Them Understand Financials
This is a big one. First-time homebuyers often have limited knowledge of the extensive financial preparations involved in purchasing a house. Additionally, given the steep price, they may have limited funds for a down payment and need assistance in securing special financing.
No matter their background, always bring in the discussion on financing options early. Explain the different types of mortgages and the importance of getting pre-approved for a loan (not just pre-qualified) as early as possible. Early pre-approval speeds up the process by giving you an accurate budget range to work with, boosts their competitiveness and ensures that sellers take them seriously.
It also helps to give them a realistic sense of the short and long-term expenses of homeownership outside of loan payments – including taxes, insurance, and fees for utilities and maintenance – that they might not have considered. This way, they can factor in these considerations before committing to their loan program of choice.
Clearly Outline Needs Versus Wants
You might find that your client has a hard time describing exactly what they’re looking for. While they may have their dream home in mind, the competitiveness of the housing market means they have to know what features they prioritise most – and what they are willing to be flexible and compromise on.
Before looking for suitable listings, have buyers come up with a list of needs, wants, and dealbreakers. Make sure it is specific – and ideally, the different factors should be ranked in order of importance. This can be anything from neighbourhoods to inventory, to preferences about views.
Property Raptor enables you to conveniently input their criteria into the system in the Contacts Module, under Buy/Rent Profile.
Input their preferences into their Buy/Rent Profile for a speedy client-property match process
When they’re ready to start searching, our built-in property match features will leverage this information to automate the matching process.
The Prospect Match feature will generate listing recommendations that match the exact criteria inputted. In contrast, the Advanced Match feature leverages AI to intelligently suggest properties in the database that may not meet all the specified criteria, but buyers are still likely to enjoy based on their expressed preferences or flexibility about certain factors over others. This capability enables buyers to explore a broader range of options and uncover hidden gems.
An example of a list of generated Advanced Match listings
Remind Them of What’s Truly Important
While house hunting, first-time buyers often place much of their attention on the property’s exterior and aesthetics. Your job here is to help them think beyond the physical and consider whether the property in consideration is a good lifestyle fit and overall match.
Some key factors to highlight include location, access to transportation, and community or neighbourhood culture. These aspects play a crucial role in determining the convenience and long-term quality of life yet are often undervalued during the decision-making process. In addition, it is good to remind them that while lifestyle factors are not easily changeable, many physical aspects of properties can be altered or added to better suit individual needs down the line.
Something helpful to do is to have buyers visualize their life in the home over the next 5-10 years. How will their needs evolve, and will the home accommodate those future changes? For example, do they have a growing family? Or maybe they are more focused on its resale value? Their answers to these prompts will give you more insight into their true motivations and help you guide them in the right direction.
Establish a Network of Trustworthy Service Providers
If you haven’t already, start building a reliable network of trusted professionals who can assist first-time buyers throughout the process. This can include home maintenance professionals, home inspectors, moving companies, utility providers, credible lenders or loan officers, and even some post-closing services.
Out of this list, having someone who can assist with the lending process and home inspection should be a top priority.
When it comes to lending, establish a network of lenders or loan officers with different offerings for a range of first-time buyers. Some buyers for example might require payment assistance programs and alternatives to the standard 20% down payment, whereas others might just want the best deal. Having go-to contacts for different needs can speed up the mortgage preparation process.
A good home inspector is also a crucial contact to have, since many first-time buyers may not think to hire an inspector, let alone do a house inspection. By providing your recommendation, you can ensure any potential issues with the property are promptly highlighted by the expert, and if necessary, negotiate repairs with the seller.
By putting the tips we discussed into practice, whether that’s leveraging a CRM tool, offering them your perspective, or taking the time to educate them, you can turn an overwhelming process into an enjoyable one. These small changes can lead to a more positive experience for first-time buyers, helping them feel supported and instilling confidence in them every step of the way.
If you are looking to implement an automated marketing strategy for lead generation and management, speak with one of our consultants today to design a strategy tailored specifically to your needs. 
