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Agent TrainingBuyers training for real estate agents
Buyer consultations, showing tours, first-time buyer steps, new construction, relocation and competitive offers. 20 guides from Brian Lee Burke, team leader of The Kenna Group at Keller Williams DTC, licensed since 2003, each with the short answer, the steps and a script for your client.
Buyer Consultation in Real Estate: How to Run It Step by Step Before the First ShowingA buyer consultation real estate agents run is a 20 to 40 minute meeting before the first showing. You cover who you are, why representation matters, the path to the keys, eight questions that become the search, money in plain English, how you get paid, and next steps. Then the buyer agreement gets signed.Do my first-time buyers need a homebuyer education class?In Colorado, CHFA requires homebuyer education for its loan programs, and many local down payment programs and some low-down-payment conventional programs do too. Classes are often available online or in person through approved providers, sometimes free or low cost. Rules on who must take it and when change, so check the program's current requirements and have buyers finish early, ideally before they write an offer.How are new construction builder contracts different from resale contracts?Builders use their own purchase agreement. Compared with the Colorado contract, earnest money and upgrade deposits often become non-refundable fast, the buyer can inspect but usually can't cancel over it, the closing date is an estimate the builder can extend, materials can be substituted, and disputes often go to binding arbitration. Your value is reading it, flagging the risks, and negotiating where the builder has room.How do Colorado property taxes work, and how do I explain them to buyers?The county assessor sets the home's actual value. That value times the residential assessment rate gives the assessed value. Assessed value times the mill levy, divided by 1,000, gives the tax. Mill levies stack up from the county, school district, city, and special districts like fire, water and metro districts. Colorado reappraises on a two-year cycle, and owners can protest the value. Taxes are paid in arrears, so they get prorated at closing.How do I explain and sign a buyer agreement in Colorado?In Colorado, buyer agreements are written on Commission-approved forms, with exclusive and nonexclusive versions. The agreement names the brokerage (not just a team), sets the brokerage relationship (often transaction-brokerage or buyer agency), the term, the property type and area, and the compensation in a clear amount or rate. Sign it at the buyer consult, before the first tour. Explain it in plain words, and let the buyer ask questions or take time to read it.How do I help a budget buyer find affordable homes in Colorado?Budget buyers have six main levers: home type (condos and townhomes), home age (older homes), distance (farther out from the job centers), new construction incentives, special inventory (HUD homes and income-restricted homes), and money help (down payment programs and zero-down loans for those who qualify). Each lever saves money somewhere and costs it somewhere else. Condos often carry HOA dues. Older homes need more repair money. Farther suburbs add commute time. The job is to compare the full monthly payment and the full cash to close, not the list price.How do I help a buyer pay cash for a home?A cash buyer shows proof of funds with the offer, skips the loan deadlines, and can close fast, often in two to three weeks. They still get a title commitment and owner's title insurance, still inspect, and can still order an appraisal if they want one. The biggest new risk is wire fraud. The money moves in one big wire, and criminals know it.How do I help a client buy before they sell: bridge loans, contingent offers and rent-backs?There are five common paths. Sell first and rent the home back from the buyer for a short time. Buy first using a bridge loan or a home equity line. Close both on the same day. Write a purchase offer that depends on the sale. Or, for clients with the cash, buy with cash and get a mortgage after. Each path trades money, offer strength and stress in a different way. Selling first makes the strongest offer. Buying first means one move but costs interest and needs the client to qualify with two payments. A sale contingency is free but weaker when other buyers are in the mix.How do I plan and run a buyer showing tour?Before you book: agreement signed, pre-approval in the file, criteria answered, saved search live. Build a tight route. Prep the night before. Score every home before you drive away. Log it, recap it and set the next step the same day.How do I read and explain Colorado market stats without making predictions?Five numbers tell most of the story: months of supply, days on market, list-to-sale ratio, the share of listings with price cuts, and the share of sales with seller concessions. Pull them from the MLS for the client's exact area, price range and home type, and write down the date. Explain what each number says about negotiating power today. Never say what prices "will" do. Say what the numbers show now and what that means for this offer or this listing.How do I walk a renter through the rent vs buy math?Owning usually costs more per month than renting at first, once you add taxes, insurance, HOA dues and mortgage insurance to the loan payment. Owning catches up over time because the payment on a fixed-rate loan stays the same while rent tends to rise, and the owner builds equity. The break-even point is when the owner's equity, after the cost to sell, passes all the extra money they spent to own. If the buyer will move before that point, renting often wins. If they'll stay well past it, buying often wins. The price, the rate and any seller credits move that date.How do I work with clients relocating to Colorado from out of state?Start with a relocation brief: where they'll work, how long a commute they'll accept, budget, timing and must-haves. Use that to narrow the map before you show homes. Tour live on video, send documents electronically, and plan one trip for the short list. Teach them the Colorado basics that change the cost: property taxes and metro districts, hail and insurance, radon, older sewer lines and expansive soils. Keep everything on facts and criteria. Never rank areas as better or worse, and never steer.How do I write a competitive offer for my buyer?Sellers weigh price, certainty and convenience. You win by finding out which one matters most to this seller and writing to it, within your buyer's comfort zone. Every term you strengthen also adds risk for your buyer. Explain each one plainly so they choose with their eyes open.How do builder incentives work on new construction, and how do I compare them?Builders tend to hold their base price and move on everything around it. The deepest incentives usually sit on finished homes that haven't sold, often called quick move-ins or spec homes. Homes not yet built tend to get design or upgrade credits instead. Most financing incentives require the builder's own lender. Your job is to get every option in writing, compare them on the monthly payment and total cash, add the costs the flyer leaves out (metro district taxes and HOA dues), and make sure the buyer has their own representation from the first visit.How does an escalation clause work, and when should my buyer use one?The escalation language has three parts: a starting price, an increment (how much you'll beat a competing offer by), and a cap (the most your buyer will pay). If a competing bona fide offer comes in higher than your starting price, your price rises to that offer plus the increment, but never past the cap. The seller usually has to show proof of the competing offer. That's it. The hard part isn't the math. It's the appraisal and the cash behind the cap.How to Explain a Buyer Agreement Before Showing a Home: The ScriptHow to explain a buyer agreement: tell the buyer, before the first tour, that a written agreement is now standard practice, that it spells out what you'll do and how you get paid, and that your pay is negotiable. Walk through it in plain words, answer every question, and let them read before signing.LPMAMA in Real Estate: What It Stands For and How to Use It With BuyersLPMAMA real estate agents use is a six-letter checklist for buyer calls: Location, Price, Motivation, Agent, Mortgage and Appointment. Learn all six, in any order, and you know whether you have a buyer or a browser. Our rule: don't book a showing until you have at least three, ideally including Agent and Mortgage.What are the first-time home buyer steps, from consult to keys?A first-time buyer goes through about eight stages: the consult, their own budget, a real pre-approval, the search, the offer, the contract period, the final numbers and closing. Two ideas carry the whole thing. First, the buyer's budget is their number, not the lender's top number. Second, after the offer is accepted, the signed contract runs the show. Every date and every right comes from that document. If you teach those two ideas early, the rest goes smoothly.What is good showing etiquette for buyer's agents?The tour isn't the product. The next appointment is. Run a clean, prepared, respectful showing, and leave with a ranked list and a next step.What is the difference between an HOA and a metro district?An HOA is run by an owner-elected board. It collects dues, enforces covenants and can lien a home for unpaid dues. A metro district is a special district under Colorado law. It builds and often maintains things like streets, water and sewer lines, parks and pools. It pays for them with property tax mills, and many districts also carry bond debt. The district's levy shows up as its own line on the county tax bill. The listing price shows neither one. So you look up both for the exact parcel before the offer.
