From a Keller Williams market center to a local mom-and-pop shop, all real estate agents have one thing in common: the need for leads. Some ask their brokers for help, some pay Zillow thousands of dollars each month, some beat the street and knock on doors, etc.
The struggle is real, as they say.
The search for qualified leads is a major consideration for real estate agents from coast to coast.
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A quick note on the size of the credit problem.
A recent study by the Urban Institute showed that the national average for declined mortgages was erroneously reported as 18%. Essentially, it factored those with no chance of denial (skewing meaningful results). When you factor only those with credit issues (i.e., those with more than a 0% change of denial), the national average for declined mortgages was approximately 30%.
I would take that even further because they’re counting those that actually applied for a mortgage and were eventually denied.
A larger percentage of credit-challenged clients terminate their search for a mortgage and their home buying goals during pre-qualification.
Those are the clients real estate agents should target, not avoid.
Why?
Everyone is qualified… eventually.
This is probably the most important point in this article: Everyone is qualified, eventually.
It is a massive mistake to view a currently unqualified buyer as a lost sale. It is not a lost sale, it’s a delayed sale; they are future buyers.
All real estate agents could increase their revenue, right now, by doing two things:
- Maintain contact with currently unqualified leads. Why? Because they are future buyers, and if you don’t keep in contact with them, they’re likely to buy with someone else as their agent.
- Help them with their credit. I know this sounds crazy because you’re not in credit services, but hang in there and entertain the following idea.
Add a credit-services expert to your team.
Imagine if you had a team member who specializes in credit-related services. Imagine further that this team member’s sole purpose is to convert your unqualified leads into closed deals. Finally, imagine if this team member was unpaid and did all of that for free.
Well, imagine no more. It’s possible.
Believe it or not, your bad-credit clients are valuable to credit-related service providers. And, believe it or not, once those clients have their credit repaired, they are no longer valuable to the credit-related service provider (but they clearly are valuable to you, at that point).
It’s truly a mutually beneficial relationship.
Connect through Credzu.
We spoke with Cory Miller at Credzu, LLC. His company connects real estate agents and their clients with credit-related service providers, making it easy for everyone involved. He clearly agrees that real estate agents should help their clients and their client’s credit situation. Here’s what he said:
“There’s so much value when everyone works together. The agent benefits. The client benefits. The credit repair company benefits. But, real estate agents see credit issues as outside of their scope of work. Clients struggle to find quality credit repair companies. Credit repair companies struggle to find good leads. At Credzu, I bridge those gaps. I manage the relationships to ensure that everyone achieves their goal. The credit company gets a lead. The client’s credit is repaired. The agent closes the deal.”
Cory is right. Plus, credit services work. There are tons of options for consumers.
Some options include:
- Debt settlement
- Debt negotiation
- Credit repair
- Secured cards
- Buying tradelines
- Rental tradelines
- Rapid rescore
- Legal escalation
There is a massive amount of consumer protection laws designed to help consumers with credit issues.
Start closing more deals with future buyers.
The point of this article is to change the thinking of a real estate agent. You, as the agent, have the power to influence your client in a positive way. You can connect them with a legitimate company to help with their credit and that client would be ecstatic and thankful. Plus, you will ensure the deal closes through you sooner rather than through someone else later.
The common reaction to bad credit clients is to say “next!” Not only should you stop this now, but you should seek those with bad credit. Done correctly, bad credit leads could be an untapped source of deals. Help them, close their deal and they will tell the world about their one-of-a-kind, solutions-oriented agent.
Matias is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of many companies that help people. He owns Superior Tradelines, LLC, which is one of the oldest and most reliable tradeline companies in the country.
