Making trust your biggest competitive advantage

According to Place Estate Agents Camp Hill lead agent Shane Hicks, trust was fundamental to the selling process, with agents handling what was often their clients’ most valuable asset.

“When you’re selling your home, it’s quite a big deal, and sometimes that’s actually underestimated,” he said.

“In choosing an agent, the seller has really got to hand over the keys and trust you to maximise the value, so the trust factor is one of the most important parts of the decision.”

According to Hicks, building trust can help generate repeat referrals by leaving a positive impression on sellers, meaning they would be more likely to recommend them to others.

“A lot of sellers will reach out to other local people they know to see how their experience was.

“And they recommend you to that next seller; that recommendation is worth its weight in gold, so the trust multiplies from one seller to another seller to another seller.”

Building trust through frequency

Hicks said one of his favourite sayings was ‘frequency builds trust’, encouraging agents to get themselves known in the community so they were familiar among sellers.

“If you walk into someone’s home and that is the first time they’ve ever met you, ever heard of you, it’s kind of hard to get their trust then and there,” he said.

“But if they’ve seen you operating in the community for five to 10 years, if they’ve seen you sponsor the local school, the local rugby club, then you can walk in the door with a level of trust that is hard to replicate.

Even if the seller didn’t know the agent personally, Hicks said there was still an advantage in having an awareness of them compared to someone they have never heard of.

Honesty

To have the best chance of building trust with clients, Hicks said giving honest feedback was essential, so the seller knew they had their best interests at heart.

“Sometimes you have to tell people the house has to be styled, or the front stairs must be tidied up, or the garden needs to be cut back,” he said.

“You need to be able to sit down and not just give an opinion of value that you’ve plucked out of your air, but validated value … then deliver a strategy that will help them achieve their goals.”

Hicks said agents shouldn’t be fearful of being too honest at the risk of losing the listing or upsetting the client,

“Ultimately, if the seller can see that the agent is very genuine, coming at it with all the right reasons, and can back up their opinion and strategy, people are more likely to sway that way rather than being gentle.

Know your stuff

Hicks also said it was vital for agents to prove their knowledge and expertise in their field to gain sellers‘ trust and convince them to list with them.

“If the seller is telling the agent about sales that happen in their street or in their district and that the agent’s unaware of, then that’s a really bad start,” he said.

“The agent should be able to use their local information and data to guide the seller towards a value range that can be backed up.”

Hicks said sellers wanted to see how the agent had come to a certain conclusion around pricing so they knew their property was in safe hands.

Additionally, he said that agents needed to familiarise themselves with the property to prove they were professional and reliable.

“I would drive past the home and get an idea, already, if it needed garden work, if it needed painting, if it needed a little bit of landscaping. I wouldn’t walk in blank,” he said.

“I would make myself familiar with it so that I could be in a position to give them information about how to improve the ultimate result through better presentation or whatever else.”