Is your Agent fighting for You?
Whether you’re thinking about buying a new home, selling your home, or you’re already mid-way in the process, choosing the right real estate agent can either be a blessing or a curse. With the abundance of agents trying eagerly to earn your business, sometimes it can be difficult to see through the fog.
Here are some important qualities you should expect out of your real estate agent:
1. Work with whom you feel most comfortable.
Let’s face it, everyone knows a real estate agent or knows of ‘someone who knows someone’ in the business. What matters most is who YOU feel comfortable working with and who is ultimately going to get the job done in the shortest amount of time for the best price the market will yield. This can be a difficult decision as your home is most likely your largest asset. Putting your trust and faith in someone you may barely know isn’t always easy. If it’s a friend or family member whom you want to represent you, make it clear that during the course of the transaction, you expect to be treated as if you were a regular client.
2. Agressiveness is good in this business
Everyone has their own personal style of how they like to conduct business. Some like to be in control knowing everything that is going on while others like to let their agent handle the bulk of the work. Let your agent do what he or she does best, sell your property or negotiate on your behalf. When you hire a real estate agent to sell your property, you want an agent that will be proactivley searching for the new buyer of your home. The problem with the industry is that most agents DO NOT do this. They’re lazy and unmotivated. They think they have already won by getting you as a client and the MLS alone will sell your house.
“Newsflash: Adding a property to the Multiple Listing Service “MLS” alone does not always sell properties.”
What does sell properties is working with an aggressive motivated agent who treats you as if you were their one and only client. Their sole responsibility is making sure that every other agent and every potential home buyer that is looking for a house like yours knows about YOUR house.
3. Ask what they are prepared to do differently than other agents to earn your business and ultimatley sell your property for the best price in the shortest amount of time.
This topic goes hand in hand with the previous, you MUST ask: “what are you going to do that is different than what every Tom, Dick and Harry do?”
The Real Estate market is always changing as is technology. What methods that were used to sell properties 10-15 years ago don’t always work in an ever changing present day market. It is true that some methods of sales are who you know but what about reaching out to people around the world that you don’t know? Does your agent have a marketing campaign that is ready to put your property in front of hundreds of thousands of potentially out of area buyers? This is key! Is your agent producing high quality marketing material that is both professional and engaging? They need to be.
Being a real estate agent in this current market, I see a lot of what other agents are doing that homeowners and clients don’t often see. If some of their clients knew they were using poorly lit iPhone photos and videos to sell their Million Dollar home, not actively showing their house, not holding open houses, not giving their client at least a weekly activity update on the status of their property sale, they would surely fire them.
“When you hire an agent to sell your property, they need to absolutely wow you with their marketing and their plan of attack to sell your house. You don’t have time to sit around and just wait for Mr. or Mrs. Buyer to just knock on your door. You need to sell your house, and get on with your life. Hire an expert who is prepared to work FOR not against you.”
If you’re thinking about buying or selling your property, We would absolutely love to share how we conduct business differently than every other real estate agent. Together with our partner Media companies, we create cutting edge marketing material sure to impress the most meticulous of buyers. We bring something different to Luxury Real Estate. We are LAMLUXE.