Screening Clients—Protecting Yourself as a Real Estate Agent

Navigating the world of real estate demands a vigilant and proactive approach to the balance between personal safety and professionalism. One critical aspect of the client/agent journey is the careful screening of potential clients. This essential mastery skill ensures your well-being and the success of your transactions.

Instead of a simple transactional exchange, starting a conversation with prospective clients can create a genuine connection as you gather essential information. When you strengthen your mastery skills of interviewing potential buyers and sellers, leveraging client intake forms, and asking strategic open-ended questions, you’ll get to the truth about individuals before interacting with them in person.

Interviewing Potential Buyers

Begin with a client intake form, a tool that allows you to capture essential information the potential buyer shares during each interaction. Ask strategic, open-ended questions that encourage extended dialogue rather than simple yes or no answers.

Getting them to share the why, how, and what behind their intentions helps you gain insight into their thought process and motivations. Pay close attention to stammering, long pauses, and inconsistencies in their answers—a predator’s words can accidentally expose their true intentions. Asking questions and recording the responses helps you strengthen your ability to identify genuine buyers.

Vetting Potential Sellers

Screening potential sellers requires a similar level of awareness to ensure your safety. Initiate a purposeful conversation—an appreciation of how they discovered you and what drew them to inquire about your services.

Ask questions about their current home, how long they’ve lived there, and any improvements they’ve made. Have them go deep into the details of their ownership. Ask whose names are on the titles and deeds. If they mention an estate situation, ask about all interested parties and help them to understand that emotions can run high in these kinds of transactions. You can offer to have a conversation with all interested parties to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Mastering Control and Due Diligence

Taking control of the client vetting process isn’t just an extension of your professionalism. It’s also about maintaining your safety. As you set appointments, there are ways to assert your authority subtly. For example, if they say they can be there no sooner than 5:30, you can let them know you’ll meet at 6:15 instead. And if you have your intake conversation, give yourself some time before meeting them.

Do your due diligence between the intake interview and any scheduled in-person meeting to ensure the client’s legitimacy. Review the details from your intake forms and begin with a reverse phone number search. Explore social media for their profiles. Verify their pre-approval certificates by looking up the name of the lending institution on the internet and calling them for verification rather than using the phone number on the certificate they sent to you. 

When you screen potential clients using these mastery skills, you become the guardian of your safety and a beacon of professionalism. From scrutinizing pre-approval certificates to asking open-ended questions and recording the information on intake forms, your commitment to authenticity reinforces ethical and safe practices. Learn about these mastery skills and get more tools to stay safe as a real estate professional in my book, Not Today Predator.