What is a Home Buyer's Guide?
A Home Buyer's Guide is a document that real estate professionals use to market themselves and find, attract, and cultivate buyer leads. A typical Buyer's Guide contains tips on buying a home, advice and guidance on the home buying process, and the key points of distinction that give prospective buyers concrete reasons to hire you over the competition.
You can use your Buyer Guide as a marketing tool and as part of your client experience to set expectations of the superior service you provide and the appropriate actions required to find the right home, make strategic offers, and close the deal.
What Does a Buyer's Guide Do?
As a real estate professional, you can use your Home Buyer's Guide in the following ways:
A marketing tool you can use to offer something of value to attract people thinking of buying a home.
An educational resource that builds trust with prospective clients and gives them confidence in their journey.
A communication tool to show prospects your value and give them concrete reasons to hire you over the competition.
A referral tool so people who know you can more easily recommend you effectively to their networks.
Marketing Tool
You can use your Buyer's Guide as a "Call-to-Action" in your social media posts, ads, email marketing, and even on your website. A Call-to-Action is the offer you make in your ads that prompts the viewer to act.
For example, let's say you post a client success story where you helped the buyer find a home and they are super excited to move in. In the caption of your post, you can put the Call-to-Action to "Get a free copy of my Home Buyer's Guide to help you navigate the current market and get the home you want!"
Whether you're sending out marketing for lead generation, or sending an email about a listing to your contacts and connections, you can make a more attractive offer that gives the prospective buyer something they are interested in, which is a sound marketing principle... always give your clients what they want!
Educational Resource
Did you know that setting expectations is one of the keys to getting 5-Star reviews from your buyer clients? When you set expectations effectively, your buyers will have confidence in their purchase journey, superior trust in you, and appreciation for your knowledge and expertise, even when a deal encounters challenges and difficulties. The best way to set expectations is to educate your buyers on the experience they are about to embark on and the level of service you offer.
Your Buyer Guide is the first impression you give your buyers about the service and experience you provide.
Communication Tool
As a real estate professional, you already know the importance of having great communication skills. And you likely already have a lot of skill when it comes to communicating with clients and prospects. But many service professionals struggle with a specific type of communication... communicating your value.
Communicating your value is giving prospective clients specific reasons to hire you over the competition. It is being able to give an answer that satisfies a prospect's question: "Why should I hire you to help me find a home?"
According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the #1 determining factor buyers use in choosing their agent is the level of trust they have for the agent. But you can't tell a prospect, "trust me!" without it sounding weird and self-serving.
Your Buyer Guide can show people they can trust you by giving them useful advice and information about the experience you're going to provide in helping them purchase a home. It's always better to show people how competent and trustworthy you are instead of telling them. And your Buyer's Guide is the perfect tool to communicate to build trust by showing them what you do, how you do it, and the expertise you'll provide along the way.
Referral Tool
Do you make it easy for people who know you to refer you? Do you make it easy for people to communicate your value and give them the right words to persuade the people they know to hire you over your competition? The answer for most of us is we don't make it easy enough for people to refer us effectively.
There's a big difference between a referral conversation that says "I have an agent if you need one," versus "You have to work with my agent because they are great at negotiating, finding deals, and representing you during the buying process. Check out the Buyer Guide my agent provided me with!"
Your Buyer Guide can facilitate the second conversation above to happen because it does the heavy lifting of explaining your value and what you do. Your Buyer Guide is a tool to make it easier for past clients, and even people from your sphere-of-influence, to refer you to people they know who intend to purchase a home.
What Should Be Included in a Buyer's Guide?
While there's no one answer to this question, broadly speaking, a Buyer's Guide will likely contain some version of the following:
Answers to the most common questions buyers have in your market.
Explanation of the home buying process and key milestones.
A showcase of your expertise and market knowledge.
Here's a recommended outline of a template you can use for your Buyer's Guide:
Explanation of How to Use the Buyer Guide - explain the purpose of the guide, who it's intended for, and what the reader can do if they have questions.
Top 10 Reasons to Buy a Home - build up enthusiasm and excitement for the reader to begin the home search process.
5 Buying Tips When Purchasing a Home - share your expertise so the reader can develop trust in your guidance.
Questions to Ask your Agent Before You Buy - tell the client what to ask you when meeting with you for ideal outcomes.
Description of the Home Buying Process - educate the buyer on what the experience will look like.
Getting Pre-Qualified Before Your Home Search - emphasize the need for taking care of financing before searching for homes.
Housing Affordability & Your Buying Power - educate the buyer on what they can afford and what factors influence their ability to purchase a home.
Loan Application Checklist - a handy reference in helping the buyer know what documentation they will need to gather for the loan application.
Benefits of Working with You - explain the benefits and features of working with you and your firm. Communicate your value in terms that translate into "what's in it for me?" for the reader.
Bio and Contact Information - make it easy for people to develop affinity for you and get a hold of you with any questions.
Conclusion
Your Buyer's Guide is an effective tool to generate buyer leads, educate them on your value, set expectations, and develop trust with your prospective buyers.
Whether you’re a new agent or a seasoned professional, setting expectations by educating your clients never goes out of style. In fact, with current market conditions, it's imperative.
Check out our template here for an example of a home buyer guide.
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Great Guide!
Brilliant! About time this industry turn consultative and focused on the client.
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