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Real estate questionnaire for buyers: 33 questions to ask

real estate questionnaire buyers
By Marina Lovejoy-Black, Last Updated September 18, 2023

As a real estate agent, you’ll know that working with homebuyers, although fulfilling, can be a pretty tough process. Sometimes you can pick out and go through home after home after home that you think your client might like and be disappointed at their reaction every time. 

Getting a clear sense of their desires and needs is the obvious key to success. However, this can end up being a lot more of a task than you bargained for unless you ask all the right questions. 

Having them fill out a real estate buyer questionnaire early on in the process will give you the information you need to avoid moving forward at snail’s pace, saving several hours of otherwise wasted time. Anything that increases productivity and puts the excitement back into the process is a win in our books. 

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Content Snare is here to help you make an amazing first impression. Sign up to access our built-in real estate questionnaire for buyers. It’s ready when you are. 

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real estate questionnaire buyers

What questions should I be asking in a real estate questionnaire for buyers? 

The aim here is to make sure you’re asking all the vital questions but, at the same time, not going over-the-top. Forget about the colour of the mailbox or the patterns on the wallpaper - these things are unimportant and not helpful at this stage. 

Here are our top 33 questions to include in a real estate questionnaire for buyers. These will help you get down to the nitty gritty in no time!

Basic Information

This set of questions will allow you to collect the most essential information from the client. 

  1. What is your full name?
  1. Please provide your full current address.
  1. Could you please verify your email address?
  1. Could you please verify your phone number?

General Information

These questions will give you a further understanding of the client’s property history and family needs. 

  1. How many individuals, including yourself, will be moving into the new property?
  1. How long have you been property hunting so far?
  1. Have you ever bought a property before?
  1. Do you have children?
  1. Do you have any pets?
  1. Please provide us with an ideal move in date and why.

Availability 

The following questions will allow you to determine the client’s availability for viewings, ensuring that they only get scheduled for convenient times. 

  1. Which days of the week from this list are you available for viewings?
  1. What time of day do you tend to be available?

Current Situation

These quick questions will tell you all you need to know about the client’s current housing situation.  

  1. Do you have a property you currently need to sell before you're able to purchase a new one?
  1. Are you currently renting?

Preferences

Here’s the most interesting section - finding out what the client actually wants in their ideal home! The answers provided will help paint a clear picture of their dream pad. 

  1. Are you looking to purchase a resale or a new home?
  1. Please outline your price range.
  1. How many square feet would you like the house to be?
  1. How many square feet would you like the garden to be?
  1. Which of the below features interest you for your new home?
  • Basement
  • Attic
  • Patio/Yard
  • Garage
  • Office
  • Open floor plan 
  • Formal dining room 
  1. If the house requires renovation, do you have a budget for this?
  1. How many bedrooms do you require?
  1. How many bathrooms do you require?
  1. Please provide us with some sample images that highlight your style preferences for the interior.
  1. Is having an environmentally friendly or energy efficient home a priority?
  1. Please provide more information regarding the ideal neighbourhood, town or city you'd like to reside within.
buyers template

Financial Situation

Here, you’ll learn about the client’s resources and finances. 

  1. Please provide details regarding your employment situation.
  1. Please detail your annual income.
  1. Have you been pre-approved for your mortgage? If so, how much will your monthly payments be?
  1. How much cash can you afford to put down for the purchase of your new house?

Extras

These 4 questions will give you an indication of how loyal the client is at the same time as allowing them to add any additional information.

  1. Are you working with any other real estate agents or brokers at the moment?
  1. How did you hear about us?
  1. What websites do you usually use to browse properties?
  1. Is there anything you'd like to add (e.g: special requirements)?
real estate buyers template

Make the process a success

Now that you have everything you need to create a belter of a buyer questionnaire for your buyers, we could essentially wrap things up here.

However, it would be selfish of us not to share some other little nuggets of wisdom that’ll keep things sweet for both you and your clients. 

Show your clients they truly matter

Being a realtor, you most likely deal with heaps of leads and clients at once and there’s no need to hide that from anyone. Despite this, small gestures here and there can avoid a client feeling like they’re just a name on a list. 

When you have an appointment with a client, be sure to take it slow and avoid being too hasty, as it can look like you’d much rather be somewhere else at that time than with them. They may even assume that you’re rushing off to be with a more “high profile” lead/client, which is a sure fire way to agitate them.

As well as this, sending a client a hand-written card following the initial meeting and once they’ve purchased their new home will really give you the upper hand. Throughout the home buying process, you’ll most likely be exchanging with them via email and phone, which is why writing to them personally will feel that extra bit more special. You could also present them with a housewarming gift as a congratulatory token!

Maintain regular contact 

Speaking of communication, this is one of the most vital elements when it comes to securing success for your sale. 

Especially whilst waiting to hear back on the acceptance of their offers, clients are likely to be nervous and somewhat stressed - it’s your job to put them at ease. Provide them with your mobile number so they can reach out to you if they have any questions at all. You should also check in with them yourself at least once a week in order to keep the communication alive and everybody reassured. 

Your buyers may also need your advice and knowledge even after the deal has been closed; don’t hesitate to help them build connections with local handymen and plumbers so that their needs are met in that department. 

Remain organised

Finally, organisation can play an important role in how smoothly everything goes. 

A majority of clients like to see a clear timeframe of events so that they know what happens at each stage of their home search and can prepare for it. 

Effective organisation can also relate to how you request, collect and store information from your clients. For example, when it comes to passing on your real estate questionnaire to a client, how would you send it to them? Via email?

The answer to the last question is no. Sending and receiving content by email is a sure fire way to get yourself tangled up in a lengthy trail of pure chaos. You’re much better off using an all-in-one tool like Content Snare to keep everything under control.

Content Snare allows you to create beautiful requests that give you the power to capture all of the information you need in one go and in one place. Using the clever builder, you can choose from and insert an array of different fields to your request for a tailor-made experience. From there, your client receives the request and can start providing you with what you need. It couldn’t be simpler!

We hope this post has given you some food for thought when it comes to creating your next real estate questionnaire for buyers. 

Do you have any other tips for a fantastic buying process? Feel free to comment below and let us know!

Avoid bottlenecks with our real estate questionnaire for buyers template

Content Snare is here to ease the stresses of finding the perfect home for your client. Sign up to access our real estate questionnaire for buyers template. It’s ready when you are.

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Marina Lovejoy-Black

Marina is a bilingual writer, graduate and dedicated member of the Content Snare team. She acquired her passion for writing through years of extensive blogging experience, during which she created both casual content for her readers and promotional content for a variety of household names for sponsored campaigns. A technology aficionado, Marina now spends her time helping customers and prospects get the most out of Content Snare.

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