Qualify and prioritize your real estate leads with decision framework

When a new lead comes into our real estate orbit, we’re rapid-dialing the phone and/or writing an email to get to the lead before anyone else does. But who’s to say whether the person who inquired is just a looky-loo searching on Zillow for their multimillion-dollar dream home, or a serious buyer or seller ready to move right now?

The truth is, you really don’t know until you talk to someone. That’s why having a decision framework in place before speaking to a client will help you prioritize each lead in your inbox. This will maximize your effectiveness as a real estate agent, and ultimately, put more money in your pocket.

As you read, and to help you when you’re talking to a prospective client, we’ve included a decision tree framework to assist in identifying the highest quality leads.

Why qualifying a lead is important

While we want as many leads as possible, we also need to qualify leads first to optimize our time and effort. That way, we’re spending more time on leads that will convert in the short term and less time on those looking long-term. There are a couple of reasons why this is so important:

• Time and money: When you own your own business and work solely on commission, your time is your money. It’s necessary to maximize the time you spend on each task. When you work with clients who are not ready to make a purchase decision, you end up earning less money (think hourly rate based on time spent).
• Lost opportunities: If you’re focusing your time and energy on leads that are not ready to convert, you’ll miss out on the leads that are ready to move forward. Focus on motivated leads to maximize your efforts.
• Burnout: As much as we’d like to work with everyone that comes across our desk, there are not enough hours in the day. If we focus on every lead, this can lead to constantly working and burning out.

Framework for lead qualifying and decision-making

When you get in contact with someone and begin the initial conversation, a few qualifying questions will let you know if they’re serious or not. There are several factors that you want to focus on and questions that will help you uncover the truth behind your leads’ inquiries.

Motivation

Finding out someone’s motivation for moving will automatically show you how serious they are about making the move. This information will provide insight into whether moving is a priority for the lead.

For example, if a lead is pregnant and looking for a home before their child is born, the motivation to move before the baby’s due date adds urgency to finding and securing a property quickly. If buying and/or selling is a priority for them, they will be motivated to work with you. Here are questions to dig into the motivation of your lead:

• “What prompted you to start thinking about buying/selling now?”
• “Is there something specific that’s making this move important for you?”
• “What happens if you don’t move forward in the next few months?”
• “On a scale of 1–10, how important is making this move right now?”
• “What would a successful outcome look like for you?”

Timeline

Motivation and timeline go hand-in-hand. If someone has a strong motivation to buy or sell, they will typically have a specific timeline in mind to complete the process, and they often want to transact sooner than later. There are really three tiers regarding time: 90 days (high motivation), three to six months (medium motivation) and six months or more (low motivation).

Ideally, you want someone highly motivated, but that doesn’t mean that mid-level motivated clients won’t move up their timeline once they speak with you. Ask the following questions to get a better read on your leads’ timeline:

• “When would you ideally like to be moved in or have the home sold?”
• “Is that timeline flexible, or tied to something specific?”
• “What’s the latest you’d want this completed?”
• “Are there any deadlines we should be working around?”
• “What would need to happen for you to move faster?”

Preparation

Wanting to move and being ready to move are two very different things. Someone may want to move in the next 90 days and have strong motivating factors, but actually having their financial ducks in a row is necessary to proceed with the next steps in the real estate process.

Don’t discount someone who doesn’t have everything ready to go; they may be a first-time buyer or seller who doesn’t know what they need. But, after you educate them and provide resources, if they don’t get started right away, that gives you insight into their urgency. Try these questions:

• “Have you spoken with a lender yet or been pre-approved?”
• “Are you already working with another agent?”
• “Have you sold a home before, or would this be your first time?”
• “Do you have an idea of your budget or price range?”
• “What research have you already done so far?”

Decision maker

You’ll very often have multiple decision makers as part of a real estate transaction. It may be a couple, parents and children or multiple roommates. Either way, it’s absolutely necessary to involve everyone who will be making decisions to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Also, if you’re working with multiple people, you’ll find that people will have different tastes and preferences in a property. It’s important to understand each party’s wants and needs to find a property that satisfies all parties involved. Get the answers you need by using these questions:

• “Who else will be involved in making this decision?”
• “Is there anyone who needs to see the home before you move forward?”
• “How do you typically make big financial decisions?”
• “If we found the right property, what would the decision process look like?”
• “Are there any concerns from others I should be aware of upfront?”

What to do with leads who are not ready to move

After you get the above information, you’ll be able to make a better diagnosis of whether or not this client is ready to move forward. You’ll definitely encounter leads that are not at all ready, or who do want to move forward with the process, but are looking for a longer time frame for purchasing or selling.

While you shouldn’t prioritize a lead that’s a looky-loo over a lead that’s ready to go right now, it doesn’t mean it was a waste of your time or effort. You just need a different strategy to nurture them until they’re ready to transact. Adding them to a lead nurturing campaign that provides listings of interest, valuable market information and other items will ensure your lead has you in mind when the time comes to move forward.

Related articles

7 real estate lead nurturing strategies to convert leads to clients

The full picture

As much as we’d like to, we can’t tackle every lead that pops into our inbox. However, we can perfect our systems to ensure we are working with the clients who need us most at that moment. Follow the framework outlined above to prioritize your leads, and ultimately, your time, energy and profitability.