How to choose an Agent in todays market.
Let’s say you’re looking to buy a large green plasma or LCD TV. What’s your next step?
For example, I would the use the Internet to check out the manufacturers site, mainly to see how the model that I am most interested in stacks up against other models from that manufacturer. The reason I would do this is because most stores would not have every single model on the floor at any one time from that manufacturer to choose or compare from. Then I would check places like Consumer, Epinions.com, or Amazon.com for a similiar model from that manufacturer. Again, the reason I would do this would be to ascertain if there are any issues with that model, if that model has been superseded quickly, and just as importantly view user ratings or reviews on it. Once I am happy with that I would do a quick price check. Especially because so many do match prices today.
Most manufacturers, especially major electronics ones, use obscure model naming methods, so that it is difficult to tell perhaps a model from England or New Zealand or the USA apart. They do need to do this ensure some protection from Grey marketers. However with a bit of common sense it’s not too difficult to work out.
In fact sometimes it can be as simple as downloading the user manual, where the majority of companies will highlight not just the model you are looking for but list the other models – applicable countries, all with-in the booklet. Obviously it’s cheaper to mass print manuals this way.
Perhaps another example may be the amount of time and/or shops that a mother would visit before she brought that special once in a lifetime mother of the bride dress. Likewise quite some time is usually invested in purchasing your main dining room suite or lounge suite, often because of the longevity associated with such an item.
So it surprises me that many sellers place their sole decision in picking an agent to sell their most expensive possession on the word of a neighbour or a person down the street. And in many cases it is as literal as that.
Based on the examples like the plasma TV above, surely it would make sense to do some additional background research for your own peace of mind. A most important step would be to scan some recent local property magazines, taking special note of any adds which mention price reduction or similar. Secondly, and by looking for the same words see if any particular franchise or agency has a much higher percentage of these reductions than others. This exercise can be quite telling about how different organisations operate, or encourage their agents to operate.
Why? Well if you are told that your property would sell for a particular price, you would want to feel confident, especially in todays market, that such a figure will be achieved. Other very important background information would be an agents time to sell, and secondly their “listing price to selling price ratio.”
In a market like we are in now there are still some agents “buying the listings“, and I can reassure you it is still happening as I have lost a few listings in recent months because of this practice.
Put simply why tell a fib?
Those three homes are still on the market over 3 mths later. And in the appraisal stages when you are informing your panel of Real Estate Agents that you have a new job in Cityville in 3 months and have to be there, then watch out even more for the higher figure. Happened to a person locally about 8 mths back. I had said would sell at $370-380, 2nd person said $390-400, and third said $420. Seller went with $420 agent, and after just on 3 mths accepted an offer in the low $370’s. They had let on to the agents appraising there “motivation” [ie; had to be out of town by this date] to take up the new job. Who does such information benefit?
All I’m saying is “just do a little more background work.” You’ll thank me for it.
January 09 2009 | Sellers and The Market | No Comments »
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