The Conversation Worth Having Before Your Buyer Walks Away

Rates go up and buyers say they are waiting. It is one of the most common responses agents hear right now and one of the most important moments to slow down rather than simply agreeing. Jason Stier wants realtors to know what to look at before a buyer throws in the towel on a purchase that may actually be more achievable than it appears.

A Potential Change Worth Knowing About

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be moving from requiring three credit bureaus to two for mortgage qualification. The practical effect for buyers is a potentially lower credit report fee at closing. That is not a transformational change on its own but every dollar matters when someone is trying to get into their first home and closing costs are one of the real barriers keeping buyers on the sidelines.

This kind of incremental shift in the cost structure of a transaction is exactly the type of detail worth knowing and worth sharing with buyers who are looking at every line item.

Why the Reason Behind the Hesitation Matters

The phrase waiting on rates covers a lot of different situations that require very different solutions. Before accepting that answer at face value it is worth finding out what is actually holding the buyer back.

Is the obstacle the monthly payment? The cash needed to close? Or do they simply assume they cannot qualify without having actually run the numbers with a lender? Those are three distinct problems. Treating them all as the same problem and applying the same non-solution of waiting produces the same outcome for buyers regardless of which one is actually in play.

A buyer who cannot comfortably afford the monthly payment at today’s rates is in a different situation than a buyer who has the income to qualify but is short on cash to close. Both are different from a buyer who has never actually gotten pre-approved and is operating on an assumption rather than a fact.

What Can Actually Be Done Right Now

Depending on the property and the seller the tools available to bridge the gap are meaningful. Seller contributions toward closing costs reduce the cash a buyer needs to bring to the table. A seller-funded temporary buydown lowers the monthly payment during the early years of the loan. Price negotiation reduces both the loan amount and the monthly obligation. In many cases a combination of those strategies produces a purchase that works when the buyer assumed it could not.

But none of those conversations can happen without running the actual numbers first.

How to Use Jason Stier

Send buyers early. Before they have fully convinced themselves that waiting is the only option. Jason will build a plan around what they can comfortably afford so the decision being made is based on facts rather than fear or assumption.

The buyer who knows exactly where they stand has a completely different conversation with a seller than the buyer who is operating on a guess. Reach out to Jason Stier to get that conversation started before the next buyer decides to wait.

Sources

FannieMae.com
FreddieMac.com
ConsumerFinancialProtectionBureau.gov
MortgageNewsDaily.com
Investopedia.com