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In an ever-changing, extremely digitalised world, have the responsibilities and skill sets of agents changed?
Real estate is a dynamic industry rife with change and innovation that has a habit for being in with the new, whether it be with technology, such as artificial intelligence, or new property listings portals.
In essence, this means the requirements of a modern agent graduating into the industry in recent years are different from someone who was entering real estate a decade ago.
Adam Joske, managing director of Belle Property’s Mornington and Mount Eliza offices, and a real estate coach for the past six years, explained on a recent episode of the Secrets of the Top 100 Agents that modern agents require a greater digital presence, which younger agents are better equipped for.
In his eyes, younger agents are better than their more experienced counterparts at “building a big social and digital platform”, because “they get it”.
“They’re active on social media,” he said, explaining: “If I was a young agent today, I’d be going really hard at social and digital [media].” Mr Joske recently shared how this emphasis on digital presence in the modern world has led him to invest in the space at the newly formed Mornington and Mount Eliza offices.
However, in Mr Joske’s experience, younger agents can take a leaf out of an age-old industry practice: making phone calls.
“My observations from going into literally hundreds of offices is there seems to be a pattern with successful agents that, firstly, they get through volume of calls,” he explained.
“To me, this is a connection business. The more connections you make, the more people you speak with, the more doors you are going to get into [and] the more you are going to list,” he added.
He believes there is a scarcity of agents with the “discipline to sit there and pump through calls for an hour, an hour-and-a-half”. It is a strategy he stressed works, even for agents who “aren’t very polished, [aren’t] great with scripts and dialogues”.
But even the roughest of industry diamonds find success on the phone because, after all, real estate “is a numbers game” and these agents “do the volume”.
And the rewards for their commitment to the cause are great too with the agents who dedicate time each day to make calls and connections reaping great benefits.
He detailed how “if you do this every day, if your connection rate is [good] you might get one appraisal out of every 10 calls. There are two appraisals a day. That is 10 a week. Any agents that are doing those sorts of numbers by accident, they are going to list property”.
While he agrees on the importance of getting appraisals, Mr Joske feels “agents across the country measure their success on the amount of appraisals they get”. It is a misguided method of measuring success, he feels, with agents hunting appraisals, and the perceived success they bring, instead of listing opportunities.
He believes agents need to veer away from their pursuit of appraisals, without abandoning it entirely, and instead aim for listing opportunities first and foremost. He explained how hunting listings first can more often than not lead to appraisals, especially in instances where prospective vendors aren’t looking to part with their property.
“The agents that I work with, I very much say to them, ‘Look, let’s ring a prospective client and say something along the lines of: Hi, I’m Adam from Belle Property. We’ve got a lot of buyers on the books, but we’re really short of properties. Have you had any sort of vague thoughts about selling your place?’”
He admitted it’s a “very simple dialogue”, but it opens more doors for agents than simply hunting an appraisal, especially when considering “most agents haven’t got a great database follow up. They might do 10 appraisals a week, but if these people aren’t selling, they never speak to them again”.
“To me, it’s kind of like, why go in the first place if you’re never going to communicate again?”
“Too many directors and agents purely measure their success on how many appraisals come and they’re not desperate, [making] phone calls for sales. They’re just building up their numbers,” he concluded.
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