A look below the surface of home selling
Category Blog
Getting to, and through, a seller’s front door to quote on the sale of a house is a major achievement for an estate agent. But it is only the tip of the iceberg.
I made that point in this space last Sunday – along with a promise to expose the hidden bulk of the ‘iceberg’ in today’s column. It is all about the behind-the-scenes preparation, content and delivery of an agent’s quote on selling the home. This will normally be done in competition with other quotes.
These presentations will dictate the seller’s choice of an (ideally sole-mandated) agent to handle the sale. Simply to get to pitch on this basis is both time consuming and costly. And it demands intensive, professional attention to detail by the agents concerned.
Tasks and procedures
Many sellers would be unaware of all the important core and non-core tasks and procedures that are essential to the successful marketing of their home.Valuing and listing the property is the springboard for the sale process. This alone requires a great deal of agent research. It is all about getting to know and understand the prices of competitor properties and what they have to offer by comparison.
So, if I as an agent go in and say to an owner “your house is worth Rx”, how could I possibly do so if I don’t already have a grasp of the values of at least 15 other houses in the same band?
For the seller to have a “gut feel” of their property value is simply not good enough. It could, in fact, be a stumbling block. For instance, how many hours did the seller put into contemplating and researching the value of their properties? Did they look at property supplements in Sunday newspapers? Did they drive around the neighbourhood and pop into show days?
Much time and effort
If they had done that, chances are that they would still not have known the true value of their property. They would still have needed an area-savvy agent to come along and provide a professional opinion on the value.
So, beneath the surface of the five minutes it takes for an agent to provide a value estimate to the seller lies a great deal of time and effort. Yet, gaining an in-depth knowledge and understanding of a suburb, and the homes within it, is nowhere near income-producing for the agent without a sale.
At Ennik Estates, the first thing we do when an agent hands in a sole mandate is attach, online, a marketing sheet. It will contain all relevant background information (such as seller details; reasons for selling; address of property). It will also feature asking price, sole mandate price, and agent valuation price – which are all usually different. The sheet will monitor progress constantly. This will include tracking how show days and advertising play out. It will also diagnose agent performance as the marketing programme rolls out.
Why an agent?
Given the internet and other search routes for the prices and features buyers seek, why have an agent? Good agents engage in high volumes of uncompensated preparation and background work. They screen buyers, serve as intermediaries and advise on staging. They understand the dynamics of the suburbs and areas within their focus.
Above all, they are held to professional and legal standards.
Author: Ronald Ennik
