Login
iscover
What do today’s sellers really expect from their real estate agents and are you giving them what they need?
The Smart Property Investment Show podcast uncovered what everyday investors and real estate professionals look for in today's agents.
Rich Harvey, founder and managing director of propertybuyer, and Phil Tarrant, editor of Smart Property Investment, avid property investor and director of Momentum Media (publisher of REB), spoke to the show and revealed what they want from an agent, and in the process delivered tips on how agents can improve their listing presentations.
“The thing I would look for in an agent would be someone who is a tough negotiator but [has] really good exposure, good local reputation and good marketing expertise,” Mr Harvey said.
“A lot of agent ... they run this process in a regimented way and they don’t connect with the buyer so you want someone who can actually have empathy with the buyers and have really consistent communication.”
Mr Harvey said that while looking for a tough negotiator was essential, vendors should watch out for over-confident agents who promise the world but fail to deliver.
“In terms of their personality, you’ve got to have an agent that’s very, very confident but not arrogant,” he said.
"… You’ve got to have agents who are very confident about their ability and prove that with their best results, they might have some street records or some suburb records.”
Mr Tarrant agreed, adding that “not all agents are created equal".
“I’d be choosing someone who is an expert in the local area… and I would get them to do their job, to tell you how much is this property worth and how [the agent is] going to sell it?” he said.
Clients should be selecting agents for their skills, not their commission rates, Mr Tarrant said, adding that he prizes an agent who can “say no”.
“A good agent will say, ‘You’re not going to get that [price], you’re not going to sell it for that. If you put it up there, it’s not going to sell, it’s going to be sitting there languishing on the market for ages and ages and ages.’”
Newsletter
