Stop! Before you send that buyer listings, ask these 47 questions

Now more than ever, asking the right questions of buyers is critically important before starting to work with them. As agents, we have been trained to ask qualifying questions to determine the buyer’s motivation, timing and ability to purchase. 

Some schools of thought differ on how to handle qualifying the buyer, such as just get the appointment, show them the property they want to see and deal with the questions later. Others may caution that asking too many questions upfront may scare a prospective buyer off. 

Of course, much of this depends on whether the buyer is a cold lead or someone that you know or that was referred to you, so you may have more context vs. a total stranger. The way you engage with an internet lead may be totally different than someone who is a repeat client. 

In any event, an initial discussion with any buyer prospect should take place on some level, keeping these questions in mind. I believe you get what you accept.

If you don’t ask the right questions to at least determine the viability of the buyer, you could be wasting your time and potentially working against yourself if that buyer has always been committed to another agent or never planned on committing to working with one at all. 

Weaving these questions into your dialogue in a conversational way is also important; the more you can learn from the buyer about their situation the better able you will be to assist them. The last thing you want is for the buyer to think that this is a rapid-fire inquisition. 

47 buyer questions

As the industry moves toward using buyer agency agreements, here are 47 questions we should be asking buyers before we set them up to receive listings, start hitting the pavement and burning gas and time. 

Depending on the buyer and the scenario, it may be helpful to send them a modified questionnaire or outline of topics you wish to discuss and schedule a call or meeting in person to go over them. 

You can then do a deeper dive with an established agenda. How they respond to these questions and the information they divulge (or not) will be very telling about their viability as a true buyer client.

1. What is your reason for looking for a new property to buy? 

If they mention it is due to a new job, ask for details about the new position as far as when they will be starting the position and if they have a letter confirming their employment as they will need that for a lender if they plan on getting a loan.

2. Is there an agent or agents currently assisting you with your property search? 

I asked about more than one agent in case the buyer is looking in multiple areas or perhaps they are working with a few agents in the same area and don’t really understand how it all works. Best to find all this out now and see if you can convert them to a buyer working exclusively with you for the areas they are interested in and perhaps you can refer them to agents in areas that you don’t cover.

3. If the buyer says they don’t have an agent assisting with their property search: Have you been actively looking at property with any agents within the last few months or year(s)?

If they answer, yes, can they tell you more about that, including who the agents are and if they plan to continue working with them or are they open to new representation.

4. Have you made any offers? Did any get accepted? 

If they did not get accepted, do you know why? If you did get an accepted offer, what caused the transaction not to proceed?

5. Have you signed any kind of representation agreement? 

If the buyer answers yes, ask if you can see a copy of that agreement to review the terms. You will have to explain that you may or may not be able to work with them depending on how the agreement is written, the effective start and end dates, and what geographic areas and/or properties it covers.

Asking to review the agreement is based on the premise that the buyer has indicated they want you to work with them. They may not have any idea how signing a buyer agreement comes into play and how that affects whether you can assist them.

6. If you aren’t committed to an agent, are you willing to work with one agent — i.e. myself and/or my team exclusively on your property search? 

If so, in order to move forward, we need to go over what a buyer agency agreement is and how that will protect both of us by establishing our obligations and responsibilities to each other. Is that ok?

Once you have gotten feedback on the first 6 questions and can determine if they are able to work with you, you can delve further into the following:

7. What kind of property are you looking for? 

8. What cities, areas and neighborhoods have you been looking in? How have you found properties you are interested in? Have agents shown you properties in these areas or have you just been going to open houses on your own or a combination thereof?

9. Do you know what price range you wish to look in?

10. What is most important to you in the property you are seeking to buy: Price, area, amenities, location, lot, view, parking, etc.? Are there any other priorities and requirements I should know about?

11. What is your timeframe for finding something, and what are the reasons for that timeframe?

12. Are you timing this around a lease ending, house sale, job start date or another milestone such as a wedding or birth of a child, etc.? If you don’t have a specific timeframe, what would cause you to act sooner or later?

13. Have you owned a property or properties before, and do you currently own or are you renting?

14. If you own, do you have to sell first to buy?

15. Tell me about the properties you currently own that you want to sell so you can purchase: What are they, where are they located, what is their condition and approximate value? Depending on this information, you can circle back and offer assistance with selling them or referring them to an agent in the market where they are located, etc.

16. How much do you owe, if any, on the properties you want to sell?

17. If you are renting, when is your lease up, or can you go month to month? How much notice do you have to give to your landlord to terminate your lease?

18. If you currently own or have owned a property in the past, what was that experience like? How did the buying and selling process go? Were there any things that you wish you knew then vs. what you know now?

19. Are there any parts of those transactions that could have gone smoother?

20. How do you intend to finance the property?

21. If you are getting financing, have you talked with a lender yet or made a loan application? If they say yes, ask for details on the kind of financing they would be doing.

22. Do you have a lender you are working with, or would you like some names of trusted local lenders that I have referred to other buyers?

23. If you have a lender you are working with, may I have that lender’s contact information so we can work together to ensure a smooth transaction?

24. Do you know how much you plan to put down and how much you want your monthly payment to be?

25. Are you familiar with the costs involved in purchasing the kind of property you are interested in? Would you like me to review those with you?

26. Would you like to get an estimate of what your closing costs will be?

27. Do you have the funds to pay for closing costs, or will you need the seller to provide a concession for some or all of them?

28. Are there any other decision makers that are going to be involved in the purchase process that I should be aware of?

29. If so, who are they, and what will their involvement be?

30. Will they be accompanying you in person or virtually to look at homes or your final choices, attending inspections, walkthroughs, closing, etc.?

31. Will they be contributing towards the downpayment and/or purchase price? If so, have you confirmed their financial participation and the parameters involving that?

32. If yes, do you have a gift letter and/or proof of funds from them showing the amount they will be providing? Do you have proof of funds for your down payment and closing costs? We will need to provide these to the listing agent and seller with our offer, along with a preapproval letter from the lender you are working with.

33. Can we set up a conference call with yourself and anyone else involved in the purchase before we embark on the property search so they can get to know me, we can establish a mutually beneficial working relationship and they can ask questions and discuss any concerns they might have? This way we can make sure all parties are on the same page about the house-hunting plan regarding price, timing and the search criteria.

34. What are some deal breakers for you regarding your home search?

35. On the flip side, what are some deal makers that would make you say, “This is the one”?

36. What concerns/hesitations/fears do you have about the homebuying process? What can I do to best address them?

37. What are you willing to compromise on, and what are some things that are non-negotiable?

38. How would you like to be set up to receive listings?

39. Who should be receiving the new listing alerts?

40. I recommend that we both be notified as soon as a coming soon, new listing, price change or something that was under contract that falls through comes back on the market vs. waiting to get them one time each day. This way we don’t miss anything in a low inventory market. Does that work for you?

41. How do you prefer for me to communicate with you during the real estate process? Phone calls, texts or emails? In what way would you like to communicate with me?

42. What is your availability to look at property during the week and weekends?

43. Are there preferable days/times, etc.? Any schedules that we will need to work around?

44. Are you comfortable using an electronic signature platform such as DocuSign for signing documents related to your purchase transaction? Would you like me to explain and demonstrate how this works?

45. Once your offer is accepted, things will move very quickly regarding setting up inspections, conducting due diligence, submitting required documents to your lender, and paying for the appraisal promptly so it can be ordered, etc. You will be receiving a lot of communications from various parties, including myself, the title and/or escrow company and lender. Will you have the bandwidth to check email and text messages regularly, promptly respond to all communications and provide requested information and documentation? 

You will need to be prepared to do what is needed within the required timeframes without delay, which includes paying for inspections and the appraisal. Costs can be in X range for an inspection, depending on the size and age of the home. And typically, buyers conduct (list the inspections) for the kind of property they are buying. 

You may wish to have additional inspections depending on the age and condition of certain components of the property, etc. I just want to confirm that you understand what will take place and that you are committed to doing what will be asked of you in a timely manner.

46. Do you have any upcoming travel or events planned that could affect conducting your property search and should you go under contract, your ability to close in a timely manner?

Attending inspections in person is important whenever possible, as well as conducting the final walkthrough and attend closing, but if you cannot be there, I suggest appointing someone you trust to attend the inspection and conduct the walkthrough on your behalf.

Regarding closing, we may be able to arrange signing remotely with a mobile or virtual notary, but we will need to set this up in advance with the closing office and clear it with your lender (if obtaining a loan). You may be able to appoint someone with a specific power of attorney to sign your closing documents on your behalf, depending on the situation, but this will require getting this notarized.

Again, the sooner we know the situation, we can plan accordingly. It is critically important that we work to meet the closing date required by the contract. Your required funds to close will need to be sent to the closing office a few days before or no later than a day before closing — not the day of the actual closing.

47. Other questions relate to specific topics like foreclosure, short sale, bankruptcy, divorce, insurance and self-employment

There are a whole host of additional questions you will need to ask if these topics arise as you are learning more about the buyer’s situation. If they have had a foreclosure, short sale, or bankruptcy, find out when those occurred and discuss the importance of working with a lender right away to assess their situation. 

If the buyer mentions they are separated, legally separated or going through a divorce, probe to determine their accurate status. If they aren’t going to be legally divorced by the time they purchase a property, it is critically important to determine if they can buy and if the soon-to-be ex-spouse will be required to sign any documents. This is where deals can blow up.

Discuss the importance again of connecting them to a lender to assess the situation and loop in your title agent/closing officer so it is clear what may be involved. 

Insurance is also becoming a huge hot-button issue in many areas of the country. It is best to discuss insurance issues with a buyer upfront before diving right into looking at properties, especially if there is difficulty with obtaining insurance in the areas where they want to buy. 

If the buyer currently owns or has owned properties, they should be asked if they have filed any insurance claims within the last five to seven years for anything and if any claims were denied or are still open. 

Buyers wouldn’t think twice about this affecting their ability to get insurance on a new home, but they need to be advised they will be asked when shopping for insurance once they are under contract, and this could make things very stressful if insurance is hard to get or is more costly than they realized. 

Explain that sometimes a combination of a buyer having insurance claims coupled with a property they want to buy having them can make things more complicated and expensive, which is why you want to do some due diligence on the front end. 

Find out if the buyer is considered self-employed, as their status will impact the interest rate they qualify for. If they aren’t familiar with stated-income or no-document loans, they could be sticker shocked, especially in today’s higher interest rate climate but really in any interest rate situation. Rates for self-employed borrowers can be significantly higher than going rates for salaried, W-2 employees. 

While this is not an exhaustive list of questions, this is meant to be a template to use to customize and work from based on each buyer client, as each one and their situation, property search and needs are uniquely different. These 47 questions could easily turn into 100-plus, depending on the buyer’s responses. 

As attention spans are short, you may not be able to go through all of these in one meeting or an initial conversation. Explain to the buyer that many of the questions on this list invariably come up when they decide to make an offer, are scrambling to get a current preapproval letter, and are trying to gather proof of funds for themselves as well as any gift funds (for example, if their parents were assisting them with the down payment).

Then, of course, there may be umpteen phone calls between themselves and the parents about what they want to do. The parents will have 20 questions, and the next thing you know, you as the agent, are having an 11:00 p.m. phone call with all involved because you need to get this offer to the listing agent no later than the next morning. 

It is important to give examples of these fire-drill situations so the buyers understand why you need to take the time to proactively find out what you need. 

The answers and the information they share will drive a lot of these questions. How you frame each topic may pose more questions than you will want to ask. Keeping it conversational and relaxed as much as possible will help lower the guard rails so that there is a comfortable and collaborative exchange of information back and forth. 

Working with buyers and sellers can often be a mystery. They only share what they want to, and there are often clues as to whether there is more to the story with what is said, how it was said or not. Sometimes, their answers are vague or confusing. We are often left to wonder if that is because they truly don’t know or because there is something else at play. 

In any case, as we learn to incorporate buyer agency agreements into our business and schedule consultations before we engage with prospects, asking the right questions will help us get to the truth sooner vs. later and enable us to work smarter, not harder. 

Going through these questions may simply eliminate some buyers who want what they want and will just keep going through agent after agent until they find someone who won’t ask all these questions or request that they sign a buyer agency agreement, etc. 

If they aren’t willing to sign a buyer’s agency agreement after a prequalifying session along with your demonstrating what you will do and how you will add value and representation to their process, that will be very telling. 

How you proceed at that point is up to you. Given the change in how we will need to approach working with buyers, it is going to be more difficult for buyers to dodge more vetting on the front end, along with an agent expecting some sort of mutually agreeable commitment in writing.

Explaining to the buyer how going through all these questions and concerns upfront demonstrates how thorough you will be in working with them and handling their transaction from start to finish. 

I would point out that as a consumer, you would be very concerned if these questions were not discussed on the front end, only for you to run up against information that should have been discussed amid trying to buy a property that could create a costly problem or dilemma that could have been avoided. 

Ask that consumer what they would think of you as their agent in that instance, knowing that you could and should have been much more proactive early on.