How to Screen Buyers Before Showings as a FSBO Seller
Screening buyers comes down to one rule: no private showing without paperwork. ClozeEZ verifies buyer identity, mortgage pre-qualification, and proof of funds in the platform, so showing requests reach you with that question already answered. Financed buyers show a lender pre-approval letter, in Arizona commonly the standard pre-qualification form buyers attach to offers, and cash buyers show a recent proof-of-funds statement. Serious buyers produce these without friction, because their agents would demand the same of them anywhere else. The rule costs you nothing, filters out the sightseers and the unsafe, and quietly raises the quality of every conversation that follows.
Set the rule once and apply it to everyone
Decide before your first inquiry: private showings require either a lender letter or proof of funds, no exceptions. Stating it uniformly is what makes it easy ('we ask every visitor for the same thing'), keeps it fair, and removes any temptation to judge inquirers on anything but paperwork. Fair housing law is absolute here: the same screen, applied the same way, to every single person.
Know what each document actually proves
A pre-qualification is a lender's quick estimate from stated information; a pre-approval means the lender verified income, assets, and credit. Both beat nothing; pre-approval beats pre-qualification. In Arizona, offers customarily attach a standard pre-qualification form, so asking for it before a showing is not exotic, it is asking early for what the offer stage requires anyway.
For cash buyers, proof of funds is a bank or brokerage statement, dated within the last few weeks, showing liquid funds covering the price. A letter from the buyer saying they have the money is not proof of funds. Balances can be redacted down to the required amount; names and dates cannot.
Use a short script on every inquiry
When someone asks to see the house: 'Happy to set that up. We ask every visitor for either a lender pre-approval letter or proof of funds first; you can text a photo of it. What day works for you?' One sentence, delivered the same way every time. Buyers with an agent will have it instantly. Unrepresented buyers may need a day to get a letter, and pointing them to any lender to get pre-qualified costs them nothing and often converts a browser into a real buyer.
Verify what you were handed
Letters can be forged, so verify independently: look up the lender's main number yourself (never the number printed on the letter) and confirm the letter is genuine and current. Red flags worth trusting: a letter from an unfindable lender, a proof-of-funds screenshot with no name or date, pressure to skip the screen 'because we're ready to offer today,' and any story where urgency substitutes for documents.
Log every visitor and keep showing-day discipline
Name, phone number, and the document on file before entry; a second adult present when you can; valuables, medications, and mail locked away; and you walk behind visitors, never in front. ClozeEZ keeps every showing request and inquiry in one place, which doubles as that record. This is also your lead list: the buyer who toured Tuesday and went quiet is worth one friendly follow-up text on Friday, and that text closes more FSBO sales than any yard sign.
Related questions
Won't demanding paperwork scare off buyers?
It scares off exactly the visitors you want scared off. Agent-represented buyers are already screened this way everywhere else; serious unrepresented buyers get a letter in a day. The people who vanish when asked for documents were not going to buy your house, and some of them were not there to buy anything.
Do open house visitors need to be screened too?
Open houses are the deliberate exception: they trade screening for volume, which is why the safety rules (second adult, sign-in sheet, valuables locked, walk behind) do the protective work instead. Anyone from the open house who wants a private second look goes through the normal two-document screen.
How does ClozeEZ handle buyer verification?
ClozeEZ verifies buyer identity, mortgage pre-qualification, and proof of funds, so showing requests arrive with the screening question already answered. You still apply the same house rules on your doorstep; ClozeEZ just does the paperwork chase for you.