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Center for REALTOR® Development Podcast

Talking Buyers, Contracts, Value, and Fees with Lynn Madison

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Overview

This episode discusses important ways of working with buyers, including understanding what buyers want, expressing the value that REALTORS® bring to the table, and how to get compensated in a changing environment. We take a closer look at how REALTORS® can improve their systems with buyers. How do we best serve our buyers, and what does that look like moving forward? Lynn Madison is an ongoing contributor and instructor for the Accredited Buyer's Representative (ABR®) designation. She will be sharing her wisdom in this month's episode!

[4:05] Agents have told Lynn that what they have learned in the ABR® class assisted them in doing a better job for their clients.

[4:36] ABR® has been updated to show how to make a buyer's offer stronger in a multiple-offer situation.

[7:01] Your value proposition is what you do, why you do it, and how that is important to the buyer.

[9:17] Too many agents think their job is done when the contract is signed. The ABR® class talks about the Code of Ethics, the Rules, and Multiple Offers.

[10:09] Lynn tells buyers when the contract is signed that her role on their team is the quarterback. She explains team dynamics.

[12:22] ABR® covers working with first time home buyers and discusses the Buyer Representation Agreement.

[18:31] A significant portion of the ABR® course talks about the Buyer Counseling Session.

[26:34] NAR statistics show that home buyers are staying in their houses for eight to ten years when they used to stay in a house for five to six years. The world has changed in 10 years.

[29:01] Why would you show houses to a buyer you have not had a counseling session with and has not been pre-approved by a lender?

[32:18] Lynn shares from her 15 years of experience as an expert witness in real estate suits against REALTORS®.               

[35:09] Agents want to take care of their buyers, but you also need to take care of yourself. The risk management side of this is so important.

[39:33] Lynn wants you to know one word: Safety. Even in daylight, be careful. Check out Episode "074: REALTOR® Safety Tips with Tracey Hawkins," linked below.

[40:45] Lynn gives advice about Contract Consultations. It is our responsibility to explain the contract to our clients.

[56:11] You will never get compensation if it is not spelled out at the beginning of your representation of a buyer in a Buyer's Representation Agreement. This is a major paradigm shift in the way we've been doing things.

[59:25] Lynn explains that without the buyer broker offer of compensation, sellers would be getting lower offers.

[1:03:49] Buyers and agents are having conversations on Facebook that are a mess! Your buyers and sellers are going onto the internet and getting their information about houses. Lynn discusses what you can do.

[1:07:21] Lynn's final word is Education! You need to take your designation programs and keep yourself educated. Be better today than you were yesterday. That's how you grow.

Tweetables

"One of the great things about being involved with ABR® as long as I have been here is I've watched it grow along with some of the agents who have taken it, and taken it more than once, by the way. … We change the ABR® class as the business changes." — Lynn

"We need to know how to write a contract that has a reasonable chance of being the chosen one, as I call it. If we're going to end up in a multiple-offer, we cannot just keep throwing money at it because, after a while, the buyer doesn't qualify anymore; the property isn't going to appraise." — Lynn

"We've got to find ways to make our buyers' offers stronger; more appealing to the sellers, and we've got that! We did a change to ABR® to put in there how to make the buyer's offer stronger in a multiple-offer situation." — Lynn

"I don't know why you would want to go out and show houses to a buyer you have not had a counseling session with and you have not had pre-approved by a lender." — Lynn

About Lynn Madison

As a primary author of the ABR®, SFR, and PSA courses and a contributing author of SRS and RENE, Lynn brings intelligence, street-smarts, years of expertise, and humor to the sessions she facilitates. As a past president of the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®, her local association with 20,000+ members in Illinois, as well as serving on too many local, state, and national committees to list, she has a passion for real estate that she brings to her classes and a vast array of knowledge that she gets from being on all those committees. Lynn has been honored as an Illinois REALTOR® of the Year, REBI Distinguished Educator Award as well as being a REBAC Hall of Fame award winner. Her years as the VP of Career Development for one of Chicagoland's largest brokerages, along with her top production status gave her the background she needed to transition to training, which is where she now focuses her talents.

She is the author of over 20 continuing education classes in Illinois. She has also served on the state Continuing Education Task Force and the CE Curriculum and Instructor Development Subcommittees.

Locally Lynn has served on the Board of Directors for her 20,000+ local association, Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®, and proudly served as President of Mainstreet in 2016.

Lynn is ITI certified, a member of the Real Estate Educators Association, was a National Educator of the Year award winner, has received the Educator of the Year award from AIREE, the Illinois real estate educator of the year and REALTOR® of the Year honors from her local association in 2003, was named the Illinois Association REALTOR® of the Year for 2011, and most recently was honored with the Distinguished Educator Award from the REBI division of NAR for 2022.

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