Motivate your estate agent - the key to the best result

In the realms of residential property marketing it is always difficult for an estate agent to figure out "the money shot" - (It's an advertising term normally referring to a great photograph that stops people in their tracks and sells the product) i.e. in real estate it's the ability to identify the client that can and will transact, soon!  Are they genuine, financially capable, buyers or sellers, rather than mere observers. 

That is the 'mystery' that real estate agents constantly try to decipher. Dealing with hundreds of people every month. 

It therefore stands to reason that a good estate agent will ask a multitude of questions in order to establish if the client - whether a seller or a buyer - is intent on doing a deal rather than hanging around for a year, or even longer, before finally taking the plunge, if at all! 

A typical "money shot" situation can play out as follows -  

Seller... "I am moving to Cape Town, where I have bought a house. I need to get there fast, because it could be broken into...'' 

Buyer... My lease will expire in 3 months, and I need to buy and take occupation by then" 

More free service 

Whichever way you look at it, good estate agents probably provide more free service than any other service provider in commerce and industry. Irrespective of whether you are a buyer or a seller, most good home buy/sell outcomes will inevitably be built on a foundation of sound market knowledge provided by estate agent advice and information, as well as hours of service.  

Think about it. Estate agents deal with many people - probably as many as a couple of hundred - at any given time. Ironically, those they end up connecting with every month don't pay a cent in the process. But they do end up leaving with information, guidance, brochures, advice and a great feel for the market- all at no cost! 

Genuine buyers and sellers 

Estate agents understand the process and are prepared to share their knowledge with all their clients. But spare a thought for their efforts to streamline their activities to be more effective and land the "money shot" more often. This is obviously something the real estate marketing community is wrestles with. As home buy and sell agents, we would probably prefer to narrow down that process and, in doing so, to identify, more accurately, those who are genuine buyers or sellers.  

Meanwhile, real estate agents remain frustrated by: (a) sellers who have no driving reason to sell, yet they peg (often over-optimistic) asking prices that are inflexible, and (b) buyers that appear to be seriously, and urgently, looking - but are still doing so a year or more later. 

A final thought... estate agents do get excited by buyers and sellers that appear to be driven by a deadline to achieve a result. A tip... to motivate your agent.