Selecting the wrong agent to help you sell or rent your property can lead to a number of difficulties, including financial loss. It’s easy to make a wrong decision, since most people are unaware of what a professional agent should offer his or her clients. Many property owners make this common mistake.
Keep reading to learn more about the level of service, and a detailed description of what you should expect from your agent.
- Correctly evaluating your property’s price
The first, and arguably most important, service that a professional real estate agent provides is an accurate assessment of your property’s commercial value. This process takes into account numerous factors that can affect commercial value, and it’s extremely important that your agent has the experience and knowledge to do so correctly.
Aside from a property’s basic characteristics, such as the size, age and what floor it’s on, an experienced agent will consider a number of other factors that can affect your property’s value. These can include: a terrace or large balcony; storage areas; a parking space or garage; and the type of heating system installed and whether or not it’s autonomous. Additionally, an experienced agent will specifically evaluate the location and neighborhood and consider any issues that enhance or detract from “quality of life” assessments. These can include whether the property is on a busy street, if there’s noise or other pollution, if it’s near clubs or bars, whether there are hospitals, pharmacies or supermarkets nearby and if public transportation is easily accessible. These factors, among others, affect a property’s value.
An experienced agent will consider all of these factors and will then thoroughly research other similar properties for sale in the area, as well as suggest what renovations would add the most value. This gives you a clear idea —the commercial value, the pros and cons of your property, what home improvements would be most beneficial—of how to gain the best possible sale price. The agent’s experience and assistance play a vital role in this.
- Effective and Targeted Marketing / Strong Marketing Strategy
Targeted marketing, whether traditional or online, is crucial for promoting your property—and something that many agents get wrong. An experienced agent creates a strategic marketing plan that is specifically tailored to your property. Doing so makes an enormous difference—the right marketing helps boost your property’s value and helps you sell or rent at the highest price.
What kinds of strategic marketing does an experienced agent use?
It all begins with the right kind of advertising. Your listing will include beautiful, professional photos and high-resolution video that highlight your property’s best features. These eye-catching visuals help draw attention to your property, as well as attract interested buyers or renters. An enticing listing description is also important and helps give prospective buyers or renters a clear overview of what your property offers, with an emphasis on your property’s advantages.
A well-written listing is just one aspect of the kind of targeted marketing needed for a successful sale or lease. If attracting attention is the first step, then maintaining that interest is the next step.
An experienced agent can anticipate how a prospective buyer or renter will react and therefore, is prepared for any questions or difficulties that may arise ahead of finalizing an agreement. This kind of resourceful thinking helps ensure that a deal won’t be scuttled.
In addition to contacting an agent, many prospective buyers or renters may continue to search on their own for properties on real estate-related websites—either locally or abroad. An experienced agent knows that this happens frequently and stays ahead of the curve by posting your listing to numerous relevant websites. This keeps your listing in the forefront of prospective buyers’ or renters’ attention. Additionally, by having a dynamic presence on Social Media and using targeted ads on Facebook, Instagram and Google to showcase your property, your agent ensures that your listing will appear in a wide range of searches—and will bring an interested buyer or renter to back to the negotiation.
Lastly, an experienced agent also has a strategy to attract buyers or renters who are conducting their search by walking around a neighborhood—and who may not be so tech-savvy. By placing a distinctive placard or banner on your property, along with flyers and signs in locations with high foot traffic, your agent can capture the attention of those who are searching locally, and direct them to your property.
- Evaluating potential buyers or renters
Your agent will be contacted by many people inquiring about your property. However, how many will be truly interested, ready to proceed with a sale or lease and have real spending power? And of these individuals, how many will be a good “match” for both you and your property? An experienced agent knows what kind of research is needed to answer the aforementioned questions. In Real Estate, this is called, “evaluating prospective buyers or renters”.
How does your agent know how to do this? In short, by receiving the proper training. Your agent has the experience and training to “screen” inquiries, in order to focus on buyers or renters who are genuinely interested. Your agent will ask a number of detailed questions ahead of a showing, to understand a prospective buyer’s or renter’s motivation for searching in a particular neighborhood, what characteristics of the area are appealing—e.g., wanting to live near a school or hospital— as well as asking questions regarding the individual’s interests and day-to-day activities.
**avoid mentioning personal life or family status ? **
Through this process, your agent is able to get a better sense of the prospective buyer or renter.
An important—and telling—part of evaluating prospective buyers or renters involves discussing their financial plan; in other words, how will the purchase or lease be financed? Years of experience, along with training, provides your agent with the insight to gauge whether someone is in a position to move forward with the transaction. Only when this is established will your agent arrange to show your property, so that if it’s a good match for both parties, an offer can be made and the subsequent negotiations can commence.
- Preparing and showing your property
Perhaps one of the most important services that a professional agent offers is how to best prepare your property for a showing. Your agent has the requisite knowledge to help you prepare and show your property to interested buyers or renters. When a showing is done properly, it paves the way for a successful negotiation.
Having carefully studied the space, your agent will advise you how to best stage it and will offer other stylistic tips that will help showcase your property’s best features, which will be highlighted during the showing. This gives your property’s value a boost. Additionally, having evaluated each prospective buyer or renter and thus knowing his or her interests, your agent will point out the features that will specifically appeal to each person during the showing.
- Negotiating skills
Succeeding in a negotiation takes skill, knowledge and practice—and also talent, according to some of the most experienced agents. It’s not enough to be able to sell a prospective buyer or renter on a property’s strong points; your agent will also have to have to be a savvy negotiator to strike a balance between securing the highest possible price when a written offer is submitted, without derailing the negotiation. After all, the goal is to reach an agreement that protects your interests.
- Constant support, every step of the way
From the exclusivity agreement to the sale agreement, an experienced agent – together with a dedicated team of lawyers and engineers – offers you support and guidance throughout.
Protecting your interests is key, as is saving you time and money while avoiding unnecessary difficulties.
By securing an advance payment from the buyer, your agent has made an important step towards finalizing the sale. Both the buyer and the seller are legally bound by signing the pre-contact agreement, which records the advance payment. Once our team’s engineers have confirmed that there aren’t any issues with the property (such as arbitrariness), the sale moves one step closer to being finalized.
Many people think that real estate agents simply show properties and sign documents. In reality, though, an agent has many dynamic roles. This includes promoting a property for sale in one instance, while advocating for the buyer’s interests at another. An agent serves as a personal advisor and confidante, a skillful negotiator and an expert marketing strategist. Add to this, an agent provides valuable insights on a number of topics, such as the current market conditions, a property’s commercial value and how to best navigate the loan process. All in all, an agent is a powerful ally and guide to both buyers and sellers.