You know the drill. New buyer inquiry comes in. You ask: Budget? Pre-approved? Timeline? You get vague answers, make a mental note, and move on.
Three weeks later you can't remember if they said "pre-qualified" or "pre-approved." You don't know if their timeline was "ASAP" or "within six months." And you're not sure if that budget was real or aspirational.
A buyer readiness score solves that. It's one number — 0 to 100 — that tells you how ready this person is to close.
What goes into the score
A readiness score isn't magic. It's structure. It takes the things you should be asking (and probably are, inconsistently) and turns them into a weighted assessment across three categories:
1. Financial (45% weight)
• Budget clarity (do they know what they can afford?) • Cash reserves (can they cover down payment + closing costs?) • Financing type (cash, conventional, FHA, VA) • LTV ratio (how much are they borrowing?) • Pre-approval status (none, pre-qual, pre-approved, fully underwritten)
2. Behavioral (30% weight)
• Timeline (immediate, 3 months, 6 months, 12+ months) • Decision speed (fast, moderate, slow) • Market familiarity (expert, familiar, learning, new) • Offer aggressiveness (will they compete or lowball?)
3. Flexibility (25% weight)
• Location flexibility (locked to one ZIP, somewhat flexible, wide open) • Renovation tolerance (move-in ready only, or open to fixer-uppers) • School priority (must be in specific district, or not a factor)
You capture this once in a short onboarding. The scoring engine does the math. Out comes one number: Readiness Score.
Why it matters
Because "I think they're serious" is not a system. A readiness score is.
It's repeatable. It's transparent. It's the same for every buyer. And when you open your pipeline, you can sort by score and know exactly who to focus on today.
Score of 85? Call them. Score of 42? Nurture them. You're not guessing. You're operating off data.
Realtee IQ — Stop guessing. Start scoring.