The Stages of Buying a House

You've probably seen this text floating around social media:

Zillow sold 150M leads to real estate agents last year.

But there were only 5.5M transactions.

This comparison, and all its variations, have been circulating the internet over the last few months. The purpose of it seems to be to condemn Zillow for reselling so many leads, but Greg Harrelson seeks to understand what's happening from a different angle.

"When you think about it, if you take all of these different lead sources, with Zillow just being one of them," he says, "there's probably a billion leads generated every year. But this year we're expecting only 5 million sales."

So regardless of what you think of Zillow, the question you should be asking is: why do all of these buyers keep signing up for website, after website, after website?

And according to Greg, it's because a lot of times they're being ignored by real estate agents.

"Of course, from a business standpoint, this doesn't make sense," he continues, "If we believed a lead was going to generate revenue for us, we wouldn't ignore them. But we're clearly missing out on a lot of these sales, so there's gotta be something we're assuming wrong about them"

To bridge this gap, Greg has identified three distinct phases that buyers go through, based on the thousands of leads he deals with each month, and the hundreds of agents in his organization.

Let's delve deeper into each of these phases, along with the verbal and non-verbal cues that can help identify them.

Phase One: The Dreaming Phase:

Imagine a beautiful summer day, and someone says, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a boat and sail around?" This is the Dreaming Phase. 

In the real estate context, it's when potential buyers have a vague desire to move but haven't taken concrete steps. They might express interest in moving to a new location, like Myrtle Beach, without having visited yet. Even though they're not actively searching, Greg still considers these leads buyers. They're simply buyers who are in an earlier stage of the buying process.

Here are some common, Dreaming Phase phrases you'll hear these leads say:

"We're thinking of moving down South to avoid the heavy winter."

"I'd love to be near a lake"

"What are the nicest beaches in South Carolina?"

Other Cues in the Dreaming Phase:

• Broad Search Patterns: Dreamers tend to explore a wide range of locations and property types. They may search for properties in different cities or towns, with varying price ranges and features.
  If you see one lead looking at condos and two-bedroom houses, with different price ranges, and around several different areas, you know you're dealing with a dreamer.
• Lack of Property Saving: Dreamers usually don't save properties. They're looking at too many! And since they're not actively considering buying right now, they won't be collecting potential listings.

Dreamers are the seeds of future buyers, and acknowledging their early-stage interest is crucial. Building a connection with them at this point can lead to fruitful relationships down the road.

Phase Two: The Exploratory Phase:

Once individuals have identified a location they're interested in, they enter the Exploratory Phase. They start asking specific questions about the area, such as school quality, property taxes, and neighborhood characteristics. This is when they narrow down their options and become more serious about exploring a potential move.

Greg adds, "Explorers might ask 'What's happening with sellers right now in this area? Are they taking multiple bids and selling at the highest price, or are they open to negotiations?' This is also a buyer phase question."

Other Cues in the Exploratory Phase:

• Focused Location Searches:

• Specific Questions:

Engaging with potential buyers in the Exploratory Phase is also critical. Providing them with relevant information about the areas they're interested in can help solidify their interest and guide them toward making a decision.

Phase Three: The Buying Phase:

The Buying Phase is characterized by a clear intention to purchase. Buyers in this phase ask highly specific questions about particular neighborhoods, property values, and financial aspects of homeownership. They're actively looking for a property and are ready to make a decision.

You generally won't have trouble identifying these types of buyers when you're on a call with them.

For example, if they ask you what the Homeowners Association Dues are for the year in one area, you know you're dealing with a buyer.

Dreamers don't ask about Homeowners Association Dues for one community.

And Explorers might ask "are there any communities without HOA dues?"

Other Cues in the Buying Phase:

• Property Favoriting:

• Narrowed Focus:

• Detailed Questions:

For potential buyers in the Buying Phase, prompt and personalized engagement is key. Responding to their inquiries with detailed information and assisting them in finding the right property is what ultimately leads to a successful transaction.

Managing Leads Through the Phases:

The overall point Greg tries to make throughout this coaching is this:

When you ignore a buyer who's in the dreaming phase or the exploratory phase, they'll ignore YOU when they're in the buyer phase.

No matter what your opinions on Zillow are, the reason why the company can sell all of these leads is because they're being ignored by an agent. And when they're ignored, they'll sign up to another portal, and they'll get sold again.

"I understand why we sometimes ignore the," Greg says, "Sometimes we tell ourselves we don't have the time to spend with Dreamers and follow up with them for a year."

And that makes complete sense. Dreamers don't want to be called every day! They're just starting to consider purchasing a property.

But let's go back to what brings you to this site today.

RealGeeks is a tool that allows us to follow up with these people for a long time.

Greg emphasizes, "When you use automation the right way, you can manage a much larger database. You're not ignoring Dreamers or Explorers - you're cashing in on those as well as Buyers."

And that's how you make sure you don't lose them in the middle of their journey to another agent. 

A great way to manage these different phases is through Advanced Search Filters.

You create one that populates a list of all buyers who've been on your site and viewed properties in the last 30 days in similar neighborhoods but haven't favored any property.

What does this mean? It means they're in the Exploratory phase.

Once you determine that, you put them in a specific workflow designed for them.

And then, you carefully optimize these workflows.

• For Dreamers:

• For Explorers:

• For Buyers:

This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to learn more, Greg covers hundreds of different workflows in his private coaching community, RGMastery.com. 

Now that you know how to identify where each of your leads is, you can effectively provide the type of messaging that will help them move forward towards a purchase.

Because at the end of the day, when you get a new lead who buys right away - that was a lottery ticket. Behind the scenes, what happened is that multiple agents ignored this same lead when they were in the Dreamer and Exploratory phases.

They just happened to stumble on your website when they were ready.

And Greg can guarantee the same thing is happening to you in reverse.

So use these verbal and non verbal cues, have multiple workflows ready, and make sure that everyone who goes on your website is receiving a tailored message from you that's specific to the stage they're currently in.

And at the end of the year, you'll hopefully be responsible for that gap between leads sold and properties sold to come down.