“Host, advertise and teach a first-time homebuyer seminar” sounds like a lot of unpaid work, but this group is desperate for info – and someone to represent them.
NEW YORK – First-time homebuyers represent a major portion of the nation’s real estate market, but the sizable group is frequently under-supported, says Arielle Hays, broker/owner of ERA Skyview Realty in Richland, Wash.
To engage with first-time homebuyers, she completed an educator course to get her state housing finance commission’s endorsement, which enabled her to teach its state-approved first-time home-buyer seminar – and seminar participants can take advantage of the state’s down payment assistance program.
By teaching the seminar, Hays says her business has grown significantly through building attendees’ trust and providing them with the knowledge they need.
Agents who want to teach a first-time homebuyer seminar should ideally partner with a lender committed to helping challenging buyers. To make it successful, they should “sandwich” the most important content into the middle of the class when attendees are most alert, offer meals so no one needs to leave, and sit with them while they eat to have meaningful conversations and set up appointments outside of class.
They should also provide hard copies of all materials, and present course certificates and business cards at the end of the class.
Agents should also ask attendees if they’d like to schedule an appointment for any questions that come up later, and send thank-you cards with calendars when seminars end to open the door to future referrals.
While the class goal is to give attendees information they can use to become homeowners, agents should also focus on communication – contacting people after the session, listen, understand their individual needs and stories, and view this tactic as a long-range system to generating repeat business and referrals.
Source: Inman (03/07/22) Hays, Arielle
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