Brokers helping train Realtors?

Brokers need to be knowledgeable about financing if they ever hope to successfully close deals – but extending that knowledge to Realtors can go a long way to smoothing the application and approval process

Brokers need to be knowledgeable about financing if they ever hope to successfully close deals – but extending that knowledge to Realtors can go a long way to smoothing the application and approval process.

“You (Realtors) need to be learning every day,” says Andrew Libby, the president and CEO of Modern Financial in Moncton, N.B., “you need to be constantly upgrading your knowledge to keep current; because if not, your clients are. They’re reading the material; they’re getting the notifications from your peers in the industry.”

That has demanded a more intimate knowledge of a client’s financial situation than many Realtors have traditionally held.

“You definitely need to be knowledgeable about the financing side of things,” says Libby, who has seen the problem this poses for real estate agents first-hand, through his company Modern Realty. “If you aren’t able to answer the questions buyers have, Realtors are going to waste a lot of time and money working with buyers that they haven’t pre-qualified, or be able to ask the right questions.”

But brokers are now stepping in to bring them up to speed on financing issues as a way of improving their own leads.

There are fact-finding questions that a Realtor can ask in the early stages, which can be as simple as how’s your credit? or did you have any problems when you got your car loan?

Brokers who take the time to school their Realtor referral partners on questions to ask early in the process will go a long way in not only helping fund deals more quickly, but in earning solid referral sources who will be more than willing to send clients to them for financing.