Inside Your Agent's Mind: Strike a Partnership

If you’re thinking of moving home this year then it’s very likely that you’ll seek the services of a real estate agent.  Real estate agents currently sit alongside bankers as one of the most vilified professions around. However, the majority of sellers will still use them when trying to sell their home.

I thought, then, that it might be useful to have an insight into the house buying process through the eyes of a real estate agent. With over 30 years’ experience in the sector I have insight into both sides of the business.

New Listings are the Key Driver for an Agent

The lifeblood of all agents are the new sales listings and they will be targeted heavily in this area.  Without new listings a real estate agent’s business won’t be successful as potential buyers follow property not agents.  They will soon drift away if they see no new properties on the market.  It’s even more important with the property portals of realestate.com.au and domain.com.au for an agent to have new stock.  Without this their property will look dated very quickly as buyers search the web daily and receive new property alerts.

RealWay’s Tip

Agents will try anything to win your listing including overstating the price when giving you their appraisal and cutting their fees to the minimum.  Don’t fall for either of these tricks.

Always ask your agent to provide evidence of the recent sales they have used of similar properties to your own and the price obtained to make sure that you are setting a realistic market price.  If they don’t bring this with them to the appointment they are not prepared or might be hiding something.

Don’t always go for the cheapest agent.  Make sure you do your research and instruct the agent that has a good track record of sales and a strong reputation in your area.

How to Find the Best Agent in Your Area

You have to do you homework to find the best agent for the job.  The top 20% of agents account for more than 80% of property sales so it is important to select one of these.  The quickest and easiest way to find the best real estate agent based upon their past sales record.

RealWay’s Tip

Make a list of agents active in your area.

• Look for "For Sale" signs in your area
• Search online property listings in your area
• Ask friends or family for their suggestions with their reasons why

Once you have a list you can rank the agents based on the following criteria.

• Do they have a high profile with lots of properties for sale?
• How quickly and how often do their 'For Sale" signs turn to "Sold"?
• Do they letterbox drop flyers and brochures?
• Look at the quality of their adverts for listings online
• Do they use social media to advertise listings?
• How strong is their database and how well do they use it to find buyers?

More Inspections Means More Sales.

It is a simple truth but the more inspections that a real estate agent can arrange, the more sales they will make.  It doesn’t matter how much searching of property portals a potential buyer does.  It's not until they start inspecting homes that they are seen as a serious purchaser by a real estate agent.  Once an estate agent obtains a new listing, they’ll pull out all the stops to get people through that property as they realise it can take, on average, as many as 15 inspections to sell a property.

RealWay’s Tip

You should get your first inspections fairly soon after your property goes on the market.  If you have gone around 2 weeks without an inspection discuss this issue with your real estate agents.  it could be that the price is too high that's property has not been presented I'm property portals on their own website.  also, you need to be aware that the agent could have moved focus to their new property listings.  They may need a bit of a push to refocus back on yours.

Reducing the price by just a small amount and redoing the photographs can give the marketing of your property huge boost.  By doing this, it will now appear the same as a new listing on many property portals.  By the same token, you should read the description carefully and check that it is accurate.  The best agents will write the advert with you as they know that you understand the property and what you love about it best.

Most Inspections are Carried Out on a Weekend and Most Offers are Made on a Monday.

It may appear obvious, but the majority of inspections are carried out over the weekend with most offers being made on a Monday.  For this reason, many real estate agents will wrap up their week on a Monday to obtain the maximum sales for the week.

RealWay's Tip

Why not join the crowd and arrange your inspections for the weekend?  It’s likely that your buyers are visiting in a number of properties within the space of two days and can therefore make an instant comparison.  If you arrange inspections for earlier in the week it is unlikely that they will make an offer before they look at more properties at the weekend, by which time your property will have faded in their memory.

Most real estate agents don't give feedback after an inspection

for some reason, most real estate agents are very remiss when it comes to giving sellers feedback after an inspection.  I believe this is vital information that all sellers need to tell when selling their property.  Potential buyers are very critical, and quite rightly so, and will be quick to let the real estate agent know if a property is overpriced and in need of a makeover.

RealWay's Tip

After every inspection of your property make sure your agent obtains immediate feedback from the prospective buyer.  Tell your agent that you want this feedback “warts and all” so that you can take action to address any issues and, as a result, sell your property.

Sellers can be “pigeonholed” by an agent

it is only human nature that a real estate agent will form an opinion of a seller through their interactions with them.  it is advisable to be as flexible as possible in dealings with your agent especially when it comes to discussing offers on your property.

RealWay's Tip

All offers are negotiable so don't be too quick to dismiss offers, no matter how low they might be.  Potential buyers can come back time and again with improved offers and end up very committed buyers, but these could have been lost at the outset by an intransigent seller.  Therefore, encourage offers and be polite if declining them to prevent your agent from “pigeonholing” new as a stubborn seller.  The best practice is to take all offers in writing as this commits the parties to the negotiation process.

Real estate agents earn money from arranging your mortgage but that's not a good reason to say no.

any agents of rain a mortgage service will earn money from this service on this puts many people off.  let's be clear here any company arranging your mortgage will earn money from it and that's just business so don't be too quick in declining the agent service for a referral.

RealWay's Tip

Many agents of for excellent professional service may be able to source a really competitive deal but you need to be aware that they will probably not have access to all the deals in the market.  as well as talking to the estate agents mortgage advisor do your own research to contact an independent financial advisor to make sure you are getting the best deal for you.

Real estate agents are not conveyancers.

Once you have agreed on an offer on your property and signed a contract the conveyancing process begins.  One thing I would like to make clear is that a real estate agent is not the conveyancer but often simply the messenger between all parties involved in your sale.  So if you are having issues, by all means, speak to your agent but be aware that they are only passing on information they have been told.  A good agent will no doubt smooth the waters and help sort out a problem.  However, maybe a call to your solicitor may produce better results.

RealWay's Tip

Make contact with your solicitor or conveyancing company soon as your sale is agreed upon and understand the conveyancing process.  Build a good relationship with them and get an estimated timeline from them for the completion of your sale.  When selling or purchasing a property, the contract of sale has a number of milestones so it’s important that everyone involved makes sure they a met.  You will be very lucky if everything goes according to plan so being prepared for problems at the outset may help your blood pressure in the long run.

Real estate agents asking for your sale complete as you are

Moving house is one of the most stressful events in anybody's life.  They say it is second only to death and divorce!  But be aware that an agent will not earn a cent until your sale has completed settlement, so they are as motivated as you are for the sale to complete.

RealWay's Tip

Build a strong relationship with your agent and regularly discuss the marketing of your property and any changes that need to be made.  Just instructing an agent with a listing on then sitting back and hoping to achieve a sale is leaving your future in the hands of somebody else which is never good advice.

If you are looking for an agent with integrity and strong local knowledge, request an appraisal from RealWay [rex_form_button name="Sales/Market Appraisal"]