Selecting a real estate agent to sell your most valuable asset is an important and difficult decision.
You want to get the best price for your property, but how do you go about choosing the agent who will deliver the best result?
There is truly much to consider when deciding who you will entrust with the sale of your property.
Here are some suggestions and tips to help you find the best real estate agent:
Don’t choose an agency because of their brand
Be careful of choosing a salesperson who works in a large agency and thinking that the whole office is going to be working on your property. The truth is, many of these salespeople work as a one-person team with their junior assistant. Many agencies operate under this model.
You think you have a large agency working for you, but you only have the salesperson and their assistant. What if another agent in the same office has a buyer in their database willing to pay more? If the whole office is not committed to working together as a team to sell your property, there is no way of guaranteeing you will sell to the best buyer and for the highest possible price. There is every chance you will undersell your property.
Choose an agency which has systems in place where all the salespeople work together as a team to sell your property. Look for evidence that proves the agency truly works as a team, don’t just take the salesperson’s word for it. Does their advertising promote the salesperson’s details or the whole team? The best way to tap into all the buyers and ensure you achieve the best market price is when the whole team works on selling your property. This is a critical factor if you want to get the best price.
The best way to tap into all the buyers and ensure you achieve the best market price is when the whole team works on selling your property.
Focus on quality over the price they quote you
You must know that agents are going to try and buy your listing. What does this mean? They will sometimes quote you a high price or they will tell you what you want to hear. If your home is worth $1,000,000 some agents may say they believe it could sell for $1,100,000 to $1,200,000 so they can get you to sign with them. Don’t fall for this, don’t list with them because of the price they quote you! The best advice is to do some research and get a realistic feel for what is selling in your area and at what price. This will give you an idea of what you can expect to achieve.
Over the last few years cut-price sales commissions have crept into the real estate industry. Agencies like Purple Bricks set up business in Australia offering reduced sales commission for a reduced service. Their focus was on numbers and winning market share with little focus on results. Where are they today? They are out of business, gone!
Understand that the best value agent is the one who gets you the very best price, not the one with the lowest fee. You will find that discount agents are less motivated to get their vendors the best price. They are about quantity over quality. The cheapest agent and the best agent are generally not the same agent.
You may find this hard to believe, but the difference between a good agent and an average agent can be as much as 10% in the price they can get for your home. Over more than 30 years in real estate, I have witnessed vendors listing their properties with an average agent because they were cheaper and/or quoted them a higher price, and later see these vendors sell for up to 10% less than what a good agent working in an office with the right sales strategies in place could have got for them.
What evidence do I have of this?
Simple, some of these buyers who bought these undersold properties were the same buyers our office was working with and who had asked for our advice. Many of these buyers disclosed to us before going to the other agent to buy, the price they were prepared to pay for those properties. But when they sat down with the average agent to make an offer to buy the property, they didn’t have to pay their maximum because the agent either didn’t ask them or the agent didn’t have the skill level to negotiate the maximum the buyers were willing to pay. They offered a lower price and bought the property for less. Often much less than these same buyers would have paid if a good agent was handling the sale for the vendors. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise these vendors also sold for a lot less than the agent had originally quoted them.
A saving of 1% in commission could cost you up to 9% in the price you get.
Focus on finding an agent who uses a sales strategy that can guarantee you sell for the highest price the buyer is willing to pay. This is how you will end up with more money in your pocket, not by choosing the agent with the lowest commission.
When interviewing real estate agents to sell your home, make sure you can recognise the tricks some agents use to get your business.
