Once the offer is accepted you switch into coordination mode and start managing dates, because the selling is supposedly over. The deals that fall apart in escrow are the ones where nobody ever asked the buyer what would make them want out, and there is a single question that surfaces it while there is still time.
A short clip promoting a podcast episode opens with the number that frames it: one in seven deals dies after going under contract, which the clip attributes to Redfin, and says has held for two straight years. Then it makes the point that matters to your income: "the deal that you lose in escrow is the most expensive deal you'll ever" lose, and "You did the showings, the offer, the whole negotiation, $0".
The move is one question, asked on day one of the contract, not at the inspection. "The day you go under contract, call your buyer and ask them this. If something in the next month made you want to walk away from this house, what would it be? Write it down."
Then the follow-through, which is what makes it a system rather than a nice question: "Every Tuesday after that, you're listening for that one" thing.
And the honest limit on what it does: "You didn't remove the risk, you stopped getting blindsided."
The one-in-seven figure is Redfin's, cited in the clip. If you plan to use it with a client, take it from Redfin's own reporting rather than a secondhand mention.
“something in the next month made you want to walk away from this house, what would it be? Write it down.”
What this costs you is the deal you thought was safe. Buyers do not usually walk over something new; they walk over the thing that was already bothering them quietly, which the inspection report then gives them permission to act on. You never heard about it because after acceptance you stopped asking questions and started sending dates.
Asking on day one changes what you are listening for over the next four weeks. You are not monitoring a file, you are monitoring one named worry, and you know exactly which sentence from the inspector or the lender is going to detonate it. It also tells the buyer something useful about you: that you expect them to have doubts and would rather hear them out loud than find out from a cancellation.