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Today, many real estate agents continue to self sabotage by making fundamental mistakes. In fact, many won’t even realise they are doing it due to the tactical techniques employed by many industry professionals.
In an effort to set the record straight and help fight the good fight, I’ve outlined a few ways you can work to avoid the common issues that are facing our industry today.
1. Restricting listings to just a few web portals
Many real estate companies are actually restricting what portals receive your listings. Therefore, the ones that are listed automatically become more exclusive, resulting in them charging a higher fee. The same real estate companies then complain about the rise in web portal fees, it’s madness.
The truth is, every agent should be loading every listing to every web portal. It’s in the best interest of both the agents and the industry.
2. Concealing sales data
The current paradigm is, agents share their data exclusively with selected third parties and then end up paying to get it back from them at a later date. Unbelievable! Those suppliers should give it back for free. Obviously, charging for analytics is a different thing. What we’re talking about is not analytics; it’s your hard-earned data, so make sure you’re not paying for something you already own.
3. Using apps provided by web portals to manage buyers
Remember that by using an app provided by a web portal to manage your buyers you are automatically sharing that data with the web portal. Web portal fees are directly proportionate to the quality and number of leads they send agencies.
If you do use a web portal to manage your buyers, please don’t complain about their rising fees or when your vendors negotiate their commission prices down because you don’t have a unique database and therefore a unique selling proposition.
As a matter of fact, why list with you in the first place? Better service? Do you really think that a better service will help them achieve a higher sale price?
4. Endorsing and promoting Agent Selection Services
An agent selection service is a company that is competing for your prospective sellers and then helping them choose an agent. They do it under the guise that they are helping the seller choose the right agent. Or to rephrase, they’re former agents that don’t want to do the work yet still want to get the commission. If ever there was a short cut strategy to get a slice of the commission, this is it.
Anyone with Box+Dice is likely to already have access to the names and details of the prospective sellers. Therefore, unless you are happy to reduce your commission, here are a few common traps to avoid:
• Accepting an award from any agent selection companies
• Publically praising your efforts with a client on their platform
• Liking or commenting on an agent selection social media post or site
• What you should be doing is connecting with your clients and staying connected so that when it comes to choosing an agent, there is no other option than to go directly through your agency.
The truth is, if you don’t already have the client’s business, then by staying connected with your existing clients and building strong relationships, word of mouth will act as the best promotional tool for new business.
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