Insight into selling Realestate.
A seller calls you in and wants you to sell their home. You sit down and chat to the seller and find the reasons for selling, have they sold before with a real estate agent, were they happy with the agent they used previously, is there a figure they want to achieve, how much do they wish to spend on marketing, what options do they wish to market the home ( auction or a price), show them recent sales for comparison properties sold in the area, tell them what buyers you may have looking for a property like theirs, sell the benefits of the office you work for, explain that you work 7 days a week and have constant training in negotiating to achieve the very best from a buyer
The seller will then ask you what you think the home is worth and what they could achieve. Mr seller there will be 3 prices mentioned. The price I may think its worth to a buyer, the price you want to achieve and what a buyer will pay. It does not matter what I think the home is worth as I am not buying it, it boils down to what a buyer in the market will pay. I have an idea going on recent sales but the seller wants to achieve $50,000 more. Mr seller you have the right to market the property at the price you want to achieve. At this stage the seller will decide after interviewing a number of agents to decide who they will pick to sell their home. They will take into consideration your proposal, if they have bonded and feel comfortable with you, the amount of commission you will charge, the marketing budget you proposed ( they all want the agent to pay or spend as little as possible and want you to cut your commission), how professional you are etc. A number of sellers will only consider agents who their cut commission, an agent who over inflates the selling price and the agent who pays for all or most of the marketing even thou they have poor negotiating skills. At this stage you have not got the job but wait for them to say yes or no.
You get the job. You arrange professional photos , write a script, download the property on the Internet, book press ads ( only if they want to spend money on that medium ) , put up the sign , bring the other agents from the office through the home so that they are aware of the features of the home, put the property through the database, do letter box drops around the area, contact the buyers you have, arrange inspections, do up date reports, have meetings in the evening with the sellers to go over the marketing, arrange the next weekend ad and work Sat and Sun doing open homes, more meetings after the open home and mid week, take more buyers through, submit an offer that is declined, give feedback to the sellers and keep doing this for 4 weeks until the press marketing is finished. In this time no further offers and you discuss with the sellers we need to reposition the price, I don't want to give it away which is the typical response from the seller. Price is repositioned. Still no offers or inspections on the home. More meetings and another request to reposition the price. The home has been on the market for 2 months and other agents have contacted the seller telling them they have buyers and to list their home with them. At this stage the seller will either go with the other agent and fall for the lies and you have wasted time and money or they will listen to you and a sale is forthcoming. Great I will get paid in 35 days. The property then falls over on either the pest and building inspection or finance after 21 days. Bugger have to start again and find more buyers. This happened to me recently as the property fell over twice on pest and building and finance. Finally sold it and got paid after 4 months on the market. The property sold for $347,000 and my share after tax was $2500 approx. Not bad for the work done over 4 months.
A buyer wants a bargain like we all do and it all boils down to negotiation. Remember one day you will sell and if the agent you purchased the house from pushed you to your limit or above you would want that agent to sell your home rather than an agent who worked for you as the buyer as they will do the same to the buyer when you are selling.
In the mean time you have to prospect for more properties, call people this is done after hours or on weekends as most people are home send out letters and do letter box drops, do this over and over to achieve an income. You may have a day off during the week but normally I drop in as you get buyers calling you, emails to answer etc. Why not work less hours, you can but with competition from other agents looking for properties to sell like you are, you have to be out and about all the time. Hence not many people last long in the industry.
As mentioned buyers can be actively looking or just wasting your time. You have to interview them and work out at what stage they are at. Have they just started looking and in no rush to buy but want to inspect everything you have, are ready to go and have finance approved and have a budget whether it is self imposed or bank imposed, need to sell first but still want to look at properties, got no idea how much they can borrow but want to look at properties, on holidays and just killing time but want to look at properties etc.
Try it one day and let me know what it's like. Yes it can be rewarding but long hours, away from the family.
Now where's my scotch
Mark
