While a good part of the country uses an Exclusive Buyer Agreement, the brokers and agents in Arizona have been very slow to embrace the use. Let me pose this issue.

How many times have you worked your heart out for a buyer, spending weeks, months or longer working for them, only to find that they bought a property on their own or through someone else. And often, they bought something that they swore they would not buy.

Many agents claim that a buyer going elsewhere is simply a part of the process, sort of like the need to kiss a lot of frogs before finding the prince (or princess). It does not need to be like that.

Think of a baseball player. There are many metrics to determine a superstar, such as the number of home runs, RBIs, on base percentage and plenty more. But the most common is batting average. If a ballplayer failed 7 out of 10 times at the plate, yet was successful only 3 out of ten times, they would be batting .300. A ball player that does that is coveted and offered huge salaries and perks. A superstar.

Most real estate agents have similar averages. If you closed 3 out of every 10 buyers, every month, you would be making a good living, closing 36 deals a year.

So I ask; if you could or actually close 3 deals a month, would you rather work with 10 buyers and close 3, or would you prefer to work with 4 buyers and close 3? Imagine all that free time, to work with more buyers, or play golf, travel, or spend more time with family.

I can hear the arguments already.

Most buyers won’t sign it. NOT TRUE.

Most buyers will walk away and work with a different agent. Good, send them away, as they are not serious. Let them waste someone else’s time. They might actually buy, but they want a tour guide and someone to buy them lunch.

You know this! How many buyers approach you and bristle when you talk about pre-qualification? They are not serious.

How many buyers ask you for a rebate or some concession, claiming that other agents are willing to do that?

If you have a license to make a living, then you owe it to yourself to consider this. To prove this, I also ask, what does it cost you to have someone waste your time? What are you worth? What did you earn the last full year you were active? If you worked all year, and determine how much you earned, divide that by the total number of hours you spent with buyers, showing, previewing, researching, negotiating and all the other activities.

If you earned $80,000 and worked a total of 200 hours over the year (this does not include peripheral times, such as classes, meeting with your broker, office team and all activities not connected with a buyer.

With those numbers, you earned $400 an hour. Some attorneys don’t earn that. When an agent in your office wants to chat about nothing for 30 minutes, that costs you $200. Think of all the people and conversations that cost you thousands of dollars.

Once you calculate what you are worth, you will be less likely to allow anyone waste your time, including buyers that are not qualified or not serious about buying.

Full circle; the way to do that is to have them sign a Buyer Broker Agreement. Ask 10 buyers to sign it, 2 or 3 might.

Those people will buy from you and close. The others, again, will waste someone else’s time.

Find an ABR class, typically one full day of training, or maybe over 2 days. And make sure your broker is on board.

Do this and you will make more money, have more free time to spend with your family and your hobbies, and you will have less stress and be more productive.