Why this matters in your working day
Showing a buyer homes they can't actually finance wastes an afternoon for both of you. The intake conversation is where you find that out before it happens — not a form to check off, but the five minutes that decide whether the next six weeks go smoothly.
Most buyer intake templates you'll find are American real estate forms: US dollar brackets, "loan officer" instead of mortgage broker, no mention of CMHC insurance or the Home Buyers' Plan. None of them are built to be read aloud on a call, either — they're designed to be emailed, printed or embedded as a web form, which works for a lead who found you online but feels stiff on an intake call with someone sitting across from you or on the phone.
How to run a buyer intake conversation
- Ask what's prompting the search, and the timeline. "What's got you looking now?" tells you whether this is a 2-month move or a 12-month exploration, which changes how urgently you book showings.
- Ask about financing readiness before price range. "Have you spoken with a mortgage broker or lender yet, and are you pre-approved?" A buyer who hasn't started this step needs a referral before a showing, not after they've fallen for a house.
- Ask if this is their first purchase. A first-time buyer may qualify for CMHC-insured financing with a smaller down payment, and may be planning to use RRSP savings through the Home Buyers' Plan. A repeat buyer selling a home first has a different, more complex timeline — ask about that directly.
- Confirm the price range they're financing-ready for, not the one they'd like. These are often different numbers. The pre-approval amount is the one that matters for which homes you show.
- Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves. Ask for both lists, not one. "What would make a home a no, no matter what?" surfaces the real constraints faster than a feature checklist does.
- Ask where, and why. A neighbourhood answer usually comes with a reason — commute, schools, family nearby — and the reason tells you more than the place name does when something close but different comes up later.
- Write it down as you go, or record the call and let the questions guide the conversation. Either way, the goal is a conversation, not an interrogation — ask, listen, then follow up on what they actually said instead of moving straight to the next line.
Something to copy: the intake script
Use this as a guide for the conversation, not a form to read verbatim:
"Before we start looking at homes, I want to make sure I'm showing you the right ones, so I have a few questions.
What's got you looking for a place now, and is there a timeline you're working toward?
Have you already spoken with a mortgage broker or lender? [If not:] I'd like to get you talking to one before we book any showings, so we both know what you can actually finance.
Is this your first home purchase, or have you owned before?
What's the price range your pre-approval supports?
If you had to pick three things a home absolutely must have, what would they be? And what's a nice-to-have you'd give up if the right place needed it?
Which areas are you focused on, and what's drawing you there?
Is there anyone else involved in this decision I should be talking to as well?"
Does the conversation change by situation?
| Buyer situation | What to ask differently | Why |
|---|---|---|
| First-time buyer | Ask if they've looked into the Home Buyers' Plan. The Canada Revenue Agency's Home Buyers' Plan page states: "Currently, the HBP withdrawal limit is $60,000," withdrawn tax-free from an RRSP toward a qualifying home. | Changes how much cash they can bring to a down payment without a lender top-up. |
| Repeat buyer, home not yet sold | Ask about their selling timeline and whether the purchase is conditional on the sale. | Affects which offers they can realistically make, and whether a bridge is needed. |
| Buyer putting down less than 20% | Confirm they know CMHC insurance applies. CMHC's own purchase insurance page sets the minimum at "5% of the first $500,000 of lending value" plus "10% of the remainder" up to $1.5 million. | The minimum down payment isn't a flat percentage — it changes with price, and buyers often assume it's always 5% or always 20%. |
| Not yet pre-approved | Pause the price-range question until they've talked to a broker or lender. | A number given before pre-approval is often wrong, in both directions. |
Common mistakes
- Starting with price range instead of financing readiness. A buyer who answers with their dream number, not their approved number, sends you house-hunting for homes they can't close on.
- Treating must-haves and nice-to-haves as one list. Without the split, every home either has everything or feels like a compromise.
- Using a form built for the US market without adjusting it. A down payment question phrased around a flat 20%, or a "loan officer" field, signals to a Canadian buyer that the form wasn't built for them.
- Skipping the first-time-buyer question. It changes the financing math (CMHC insurance, the Home Buyers' Plan) enough that asking it upfront saves a conversation later.
- Reading the script like a form instead of a conversation. The questions are there to guide you, not to be read in order with no follow-up.
How CallSmart helps
CallSmart captures the intake conversation and turns it into a follow-up and notes you approve before anything sends. For an in-person consultation, use Record a meeting; for a phone intake call, call through CallSmart or use Record a call I'm on; for a conversation you didn't record, type or dictate what you heard, or Scan handwritten notes, in the notes screen. Either way, tell the client the call or meeting is being recorded — CallSmart's own setup and merge-call screens remind you to, but nothing announces it to the client automatically. See One-Party Consent in Canada for the rule and a line to say out loud first.
One honest limit: CallSmart's automatic detail-extraction and its "a few quick questions" prompts are built around mortgage conversations — income, down payment source, marital status, joint or solo application — not a real estate buyer intake. A realtor's intake call still gets a transcript, a draft follow-up and CRM notes, just without that mortgage-specific structure filling in the gaps for you. You still read, edit and approve both the email and notes before anything goes out, and you can copy or share the notes to whatever CRM you use.
Frequently asked questions
What should a real estate buyer intake form include?
Contact details, what's prompting the search and the timeline, financing readiness and pre-approval status, price range, must-haves versus nice-to-haves, preferred areas and the reasons behind them, and who else is involved in the decision.
Do I need a separate intake form for first-time buyers?
Not a separate form, but one extra question: whether this is their first purchase. A first-time buyer may use the Home Buyers' Plan or qualify for a smaller insured down payment, which changes the price range conversation.
How much down payment does a Canadian buyer need?
It depends on price. CMHC's insured-purchase minimum is 5% of the first $500,000 of a home's value, plus 10% of any amount between $500,000 and $1.5 million. Homes at or above $1.5 million need a 20% down payment, with no mortgage insurance available.
Should I run intake before or after the first showing?
Before. Financing readiness and must-haves decide which homes are worth showing at all, so asking afterward means you've already spent a showing finding out what intake would have told you in five minutes.
Can I record an intake call instead of typing notes?
Yes, as a participant you can record a call you're on under Canadian federal law, but as a business collecting someone's personal information you also need to tell them and get their consent. See One-Party Consent in Canada for the full rule. This isn't legal advice.
What's the difference between a must-have and a nice-to-have?
A must-have rules a home out entirely if it's missing. A nice-to-have is something a buyer would want but would still consider an otherwise-good home without. Asking for both, separately, stops a buyer from treating every missing feature as a dealbreaker.
Sources
Not legal or financial advice. Confirm current CMHC and CRA rules, and how they apply to a specific buyer, with a mortgage professional.