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The trust game: What should sellers look for in an agent?
For property owners, listing with an agent requires trust and confidence that they can get the best price, but how do you know you’re in safe hands? REB asked one of Australia’s top property experts.
According to Century 21 Australasia chairman, Charles Tarbey, knowledge, care, tailored communication and proven results should be the key factors in property owners’ decisions when choosing an agent to list with.
For example, agents should not only showcase their knowledge of the local area surrounding the property, but also demonstrate care by understanding the vendor’s perspective.
“Some agents will go in with a lot of knowledge, and you might find sellers who really want to know that the agent understands their position more than they understand the area,” Tarbey told REB.
“And then you have agents that go in with far too much care and not enough knowledge, and they do that with people who are looking for knowledge, not care.”
Tarbey said that sellers should look out for agents who demonstrate an equal amount of knowledge and care towards prospective vendors at listing presentations while, at the same time, tailoring their approach to suit the seller’s needs.
“A lot of agents will start with either one or the other, and no balance, and so once they understand what the person’s after, by finding out through balance, then they can go down that path,” he said.
One way that agents may show care towards sellers is by getting to understand, on a personal level, what attracted them to the property in the first place.
“I let (sellers) know that the reason I do that is that what attracted them to the property will form my advertising content,” Tarbey said.
“Those reasons may very well be the reasons that other people are looking to buy their property. And so that’s part of the relationship building … that’s part of demonstrating care and respect for them as home owners.”
It’s also crucial for sellers to see real results and a proven track record from the agent, not simply “perceived results” through lots of listings and clever marketing.
Tarbey said many sellers shouldn't simply choose to list with an agent just because the agent has the most number of signs at the front of houses.
“A lot of agents think, ‘Oh, I’ve got more signs out than anybody else that qualifies me’. Well, it’s more sold signs out there that a quality vendor is attracted to,” he said.
“If I was a vendor, I’d be thinking, ‘Well, that means I’m going to give my home to you and you’re going to put me in with a bunch of people whose homes you haven’t sold yet’.
“So it’s that understanding that a seller is more interested in your real results, not the perceived results.”
He said that while some sellers are likely to pay attention to an agent having a larger office, more advertising, and numerous signs at the front of properties, these should not be critical to sellers’ decisions.
First impressions and initial discussions may also significantly influence sellers’ perceptions of agents and their decision to list with the individual.
Tarbey said that, assuming they do not already know each other, the moment when the seller first makes contact with the agent for a market opinion is pivotal to forming their opinion.
“How you address those people before, whether you send them information about your business or career or something out to them, whether you meet with them, how you sit with them, how you talk with them … all of those things are critical,” he said.
While some sellers may not immediately know if an agent is right for them and choose to consider other options first, many sellers will intuitively know whether they want to proceed.
“If you’re meeting somebody for the first time, you sort of get a view of whether they’re happy to chat with you or they’re not happy to chat with you or they prefer to be somewhere else,” Tarbey said.
“You get that view very quickly. And if you’re getting that view very quickly, then you either need to change tack or you’re just wasting your time.
“I think the sellers pretty much let you know very, very quickly, probably in the first 15 minutes, whether or not they want to continue to the next stage with you.”
According to Tarbey, one of the ways a good agent may form a connection with a vendor in the initial stages is by utilising more personal ways of contacting them.
“The best agents are the ones that rely on voice-to-voice, face-to-face and contact-to-contact,” he said.
“The worst agents are the ones that rely on email, SMS, and any electronic process to communicate with people.”
“Immediately for me, if that person doesn’t have the decency to pick up the telephone, call me, introduce who they are and what their services are, I really am not sure I want to do business with them,” he concluded.