CHOOSING THE RIGHT REAL ESTATE AGENT

Truth: Not every Real Estate Agent is the same.

Do you think there is a difference between a good and a poor builder, lawyer or chef? Of course there is. And would you pay more money for a better one of any of these professionals? Absolutely! Similarly there is an enormous difference between a great real estate agent and a poor real estate agent. The only difference is that in Queensland they all charge the same. You don’t pay any more to employ a superior Real Estate Agent to sell your home as you do to employ a mediocre one.

Truth: Every property has a reasonable price range that it could potentially sell in and a better agent will consistently negotiate prices in the higher end of that range.

Example: On a $400,000 property, that range may be as much as $40,000, even more on a more expensive home. Just take a moment to think about that. The difference to you between getting the right real estate agent on board to sell your home and the wrong agent may be as much as $40,000.  Even conservatively, let’s say $10,000 to $20,000. That’s still a house full of furniture, a nice car, a family holiday or a significant mortgage payment on your next home. I call that an expensive mistake if you have the wrong real estate agent working for you!

The question is “How do you make an intelligent decision to engage a real estate agent to sell your home and know that you’ve got the best person on the job?” Too often sellers make the decision to engage an agent to sell their home based on all the wrong criteria.

So How Do I Choose a Real Estate Agent?

The only means by which an agent’s performance should be measured is results. It’s as simple as that. Results don’t lie! Any real estate agent can sell a house and any agent can even get a great result in a sale but a superior real estate agent will CONSISTENTLY achieve outstanding results and this will be backed up by recommendations from the vast majority of clients that have dealt with them. A good real estate agent will:

Have a very high list: sell ratio. That is, a very high percentage of what they list actually sells. An agent who sold 23 of their last 25 marketed properties gives you a 92% chance of selling your home. A real estate agent who sold 15 of their last 25 marketed properties gives you a 60% chance of selling your home. Or worse put, a 40% chance of not selling it! Let me ask you this question, “Would you allow a heart surgeon who had a 40% failure rate perform open heart surgery on you or would you go with someone who gave you better odds?

Have a number of satisfied past clients who will offer personal recommendations and who would use their services again without hesitation and will happily supply you their contact names and numbers.

Have a solid and comprehensive knowledge of the sale process, buyer/consumer behaviour, and principles of marketing. They should be able to answer all your questions in a simple and logical manner.

Have a team whose mission it is to make your sales consultant more effective by taking care of all the necessary but non-productive work that is involved in facilitating the sale of a property. This means that your real estate agent is totally focused on doing one thing and that is finding and negotiating with potential buyers for your property. After all isn’t that what you employed them to do!

Maintain a high level of enthusiasm the whole way through your sales process. Many agents will be excited about your home for the first 3 or 4 weeks that it is listed but if the home hasn’t sold within that time frame, it becomes too hard and your property doesn’t get the attention or priority when fresh listings come on board. You are then left with an unmotivated real estate agent and will get frustrated that nothing is happening. A good agent will keep yours and the property’s spirits up for longer, even if the prime selling time has gone (if the home hasn’t sold quickly) and will continue working diligently and enthusiastically until a sale is achieved.

Have an active buyer management system that records and qualifies buyer enquiry and systematically markets current property listing to this database. Most potential sellers think that all agents would have such a system however the reality is that very few agents do this effectively and the vast majority of agents have no structured process or system for recording buyer enquiry. Be sure to ask any potential agents to explain exactly how their database works and how your property will benefit from exposure to it.

A good real estate agent will offer honest and objective advice about putting your home on the market and will offer this advice BEFORE you have made the decision to sell. The trust is that there are risks involved in selling a home and many costly mistakes can be avoided with the right advice. At the point of listing a property, many agents will tell you what you want to hear to list your property and may withhold important advice that could discourage you from putting your home on the market until you are in the middle of a sale process and are committed to selling.

Many potential sellers will choose an agent to sell their home based on convenience, a feeling of personal obligation and for other ‘gimmicky’ reasons that are convincing but really make no difference to their chance of achieving a great price. These include:

- The agent who tried to boost our expectations and quoted us a high price.

- The agent who has the most ‘experience’ or has been around the longest. Experience or time in the market alone are poor indicators of success. Fifteen years of doing it wrong isn’t going to do you any favours.

- The agent who has the highest profile, the most ads in the paper or the most listings in the area. Perceived activity is one of the most misleading reasons to choose an agent. There are plenty of agents that carry lots of listings but only sell half of what they list. Similarly there are many agents that sell lots of property but achieve mediocre results for each sale because they are too busy to properly service each client.

-  The agent that we bought the property from that we really like but know we got a great deal. These agents are great to buy through and bad to sell through.

-  The agent who has the most convenient office location. Office location makes zero difference to the agent’s ability to sell your home as buyers do not walk into real estate agencies looking for properties, they call off advertisements and signs when they see something that may appeal to them. If a property is marketed well, an agent can sell a home in any area.

- The agent we feel obliged to give the property to because they:

- Are a friend or family member

- Have been keeping in touch the longest

- Are a really nice person

Although these seem to be good reasons it doesn’t necessarily mean they are the most qualified person for the job. Once you’ve found a Real Estate Agent that you are comfortable with and have confidence in, Stick with that agent until your property sells. Many sellers switch agents if the property hasn’t sold within a short time frame, wanting to ‘give someone else a go’. However if your original agent is doing everything that could possibly be done and if you are happy with their ability to negotiate, their market knowledge and ongoing enthusiasm, then there is no more that another real estate agent can really offer, the reality is that some homes are just going to take that little bit longer to sell and if you keep plugging away, you will get there.