As conditions slow, agents should prioritise developing their skill sets and cultivating relationships with clients, or risk being left behind. Here is how to survive the softer market.
According to Elders trainer, mentor, and coach Sebastian Bonaccorso, the current property market created a chance for agents to really differentiate themselves based on their fundamental skills.
“Most people that are in the marketplace now and haven’t experienced a hard market are going to find this very difficult, because when the market is really good, you don’t have to be a great agent.”
“This is a great market for experienced, well-skilled agents to see an opportunity and do well,” Bonaccorso said.
Speaking on the REB Podcast, he said that in the current market, it was important for agents to nail the fundamental skills, such as appraisals, relationship building, and negotiation.
With vendors and buyers having so much information at their fingertips, Bonaccorso said there was no excuse for agents to come into an appraisal or listing unprepared.
“There’s a lot of information that you can prepare. I think that if you come into a listing prepared with a good attitude, that really stands out.”
“One of the things we tell our agents is that you have got to make sure that you have a really good plan, so when you come into a listing presentation, you’ve got a strategy that’s going to deliver the vendor the best result.”
Similarly, he said that agents needed to ensure that they weren’t entering listings and assuming that they were going to win the business.
Once they had secured the business, Bonaccorso said the next step was to ensure that the pricing was correctly set up to target the right demographic of buyers.
He said that agents needed to understand the motivations of their buyers to maximise interest among their target market before coming to the table to negotiate.
“Work out whether that market is going to be more emotional or buying from their pockets, work out a strategy to attract those buyers, and once we have done that, our job is to find out what they want to pay for the property.”
“Our job as agents is not to sell at that price, but to obtain a better price through our involvement in negotiations.”
Cooling market to reshape agent focus
Bonaccorso said that as the market slows and agents were required to do more of the heavy lifting, it was important they took the opportunity to educate themselves and further develop their skill set.
He said that while there were many opportunities for agents to upskill, either by learning from experienced agents or through training courses, they needed to use them to shape their approach, not rely on them.
“Vendors and buyers know if you are a textbook or a scripted agent. Learn the skills, but become a person as well.”
He said that often new agents came into the industry with “commission breath”, and it hurt their ability to connect with clients and win listings.
“They are very focused on winning the business, but not understanding the client’s needs or coming up with a strategy which is going to be bulletproof.”
Be comfortable with not seeing the results
Bonaccorso said that one of the biggest challenges real estate agents faced was remaining patient and staying consistent, even when they weren’t immediately seeing results.
“Sometimes you can do a lot of work, but it doesn’t show up for 60 or 90 days. This is a marketplace where you have got to be really good at handling that because there are opportunities that we nurture for 60 or 90 days that don’t come to fruition,” Bonacorso said.
“You have got to be very good at making sure that you show up and you put the effort in and stay on track.”
Additionally, he said that in the current state of the market, agents needed to prioritise building relationships rather than purely winning listings or booking appraisals.
“If you’re not seen, if you’re a secret agent, then nobody is going to find you. I think the agent who has got the biggest reach is going to be the biggest winner.”
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