What the Best Agents Do in the First 48 Hours

Through FABA, I get to see how agents start with a new client after we make an introduction. The best agents tend to do the same few things in the first 48 hours. Here is what I see, and what each step means if you are new to the process.

They make contact and make it easy to meet

Number one, they make contact. And they provide an easy way to connect, so the client can schedule at least a more formal consultation.

A consultation is a sit-down conversation, in person, by phone or on video, before any house hunting or listing work starts. It is where the agent learns your goals, your timeline and your budget, and where you learn how they work.

On our side, FABA reaches out by call, text and email, because some people are at work, some are at home and some are with family. An easy way to connect matters with an agent for the same reason.

They find out exactly what you are looking for

From there, the best agents are normally asking our team for any additional details the client might have shared, even though this is all given to them up front. They want the full picture before the first real conversation.

A lot of the best agents are hyper focused on finding out what exactly this person or family is looking for, so they can begin to prepare to best serve them.

In practice, that means questions about you before answers about houses. Are you buying, selling or investing? By when? What matters most to you, and what can you live without?

They get the first tools in place

From there, they are normally getting the client set up. What that looks like depends on whether you are buying or selling.

For buyers, it is usually two things:

• Some type of property search. Often this is a saved search that emails you homes matching what you described, so you and the agent are looking at the same listings.
• Pre-approval, if you have not started already. A pre-approval comes from a lender, not from the agent. The lender reviews things like your income, credit and savings and tells you how much they are prepared to lend. The agent's part is getting you to that step early.

For sellers, they are likely getting some comparable properties into the client's email inbox and saved. Comparable properties, often called comps, are similar homes near yours that sold recently or are on the market now. The agent uses them to begin to run an analysis on the best strategy for getting that property to market.

If you are a buyer at this stage, Before You Start House Hunting, Do This First is a good companion read.

What a weak start looks like

A weak start is the opposite of everything above. The contact is slow, or it is hard to get a time on the calendar. The agent asks you to repeat things you already shared. Listings show up before anyone has asked what you want.

The other sign is generalizations. If an agent is saying yes to everything, or giving every area you bring up the same blanket statement, I would be worried that they are not really listening and are more concerned with moving the deal along.

The main thing is listening

All in all, the main thing the best agents are doing in those first 48 hours is listening to the client's needs, and then matching that with opportunities that are within their current market.

Everything else comes out of that: the consultation, the search, the pre-approval and the comps.

How agents work differs by state and by brokerage, so take this as what I see, not as a rulebook. For how the introduction itself works, read What Happens After You Fill Out the FABA Form. And if you want to be introduced to an agent in your market, start at findablackagent.com.