Whether you’re selling your family home, or realising gains on an investment property, you want to be sure you’re getting the maximum return on investment.
You may have improved your home or rental property with renovations, and dedicated time and money over many years to develop your asset to its optimum potential. So how do you ensure you achieve the best possible outcome when the time comes to sell?
Selecting the right real estate agent is essential, but how do you choose the best one for you? And what’s your assessment criteria?
Using a Property Advisor to help you find the right agent might seem like an unnecessary additional layer of complexity, but it could be the difference between a good result and a great result.
First, let’s look at how the majority of vendors choose an agent, which is typically one of the following:
- They go back to the agent that originally sold the property to them, because they did a good job.
- They go to a friend, because of a special price or discount.
- They go to the agency with the best reputation in the area.
- They use an agent that’s been referred to them.
- They go with the agent proposing the highest selling price for the property.
- They choose the agent with the cheapest commissions structure.
These all seem like reasonable criteria for selection, and we can all relate to some of these. But really, how do you know you’ve made the best choice?
Let’s remember for a moment that what you are selling here is likely one of the biggest investments you have made in your lifetime. And with a little extra guidance, you could make absolutely sure you have the best agent for the job, with the best rates agreed, and the optimum selling price for your property.
Achieving this is simply a process of recruitment, which a Property Advisor will manage for you with in-depth analysis and proven selection criteria.
When selling your property, you have a lot more choices than you realise.
You can choose to sell thorough an agent, but you can also choose to sell through an auctioneer. Even if you do work with an agent, you are not obliged to use the one they recommend – you can choose a specific auctioneer – and you can determine the time and location of the auction. Take advice from your agent, by all means, but don’t be pressured into selling the way that best suits them, when you actually have more control.
Essentially, there are 4 ways to sell a property:
- Private treaty
- Auction
- Expression of interest
- Offers above a certain price
Again, how do you decide what’s right for you? Your agent may not offer, or even discuss these options with you, and steer you towards the option that suits them. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept that option – you always have a choice.
Get Some Expert Advice from a Professional
A professional Property Advisor is independent and impartial. They work for you – to interview, analyse, negotiate and recruit the best agent for the job.
At PA Partners, we’ve established a process called Seller Assist. Here’s an overview of how it works…
Selecting an Agent with Seller Assist
First, we conduct an intensive agency analysis in your local area.
We only ever deal with the principal of the agency, which gives us greater negotiating power, because only they have the capacity to discount their fees by up to 40%. A selling agent is only paid a fraction of the commission, and has little room to negotiate.
We analyse how many properties each agency has sold in the last 12 months, to give us a clear idea of the market share. This is only one measure, but we usually find the agency with the biggest share of the market has achieved their status for good reason.
On this basis, we select the top 3 to 5 agencies with which to conduct interviews and deeper analysis, rating them on 15 different points.
This helps us select the top 3 agencies for final comparison.
The shortlisted 3 are invited to view the property and submit their appraisals, highlighting the following:
- Current market overview, specific to your property
- Profile of the most probable buyer
- Their proposed method of sale (private treaty, auction, expressions of interest or offers above)
- Whether property styling is required
- Whether any renovations are necessary to fully optimise visual impact
- Proposed marketing strategy, campaign duration, and inspection calendar
- Proposed media advertising
- Whether inspections should be through open homes or by appointment
- Proposed market value, guide price and expected sale price
- Commitment to reporting and frequency of reports
Remember, we have a choice over all of these fine details, and prior selecting your agent, we will require confirmation whether they agree to our choices or not.
Once proposals are received, we conduct face-to-face interviews, assessing each agent over 50 points of criteria.
With each agent, we conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis on your property, compiling a list of strengths and opportunities that may be highlighted in the presentation of your property and marketing, also understanding from you what you most love about the property.
Similarly, we identify weaknesses of the property and potential threats to a successful campaign, allowing us to be proactive in the management and positioning of these and removal of any barriers to sale.
This interview process distils our agency pool down to two favourites. We’ll negotiate terms with our first choice and if we are both happy with the result, we go ahead and appoint the selected agent.
It’s important to remember that all the standard terms an agency uses are negotiable, and this is how we help. For example:
Many agents now run 3-week campaigns as standard prior to auction, where we will insist on a 4-week campaign.
A half hour inspection is typically offered, but we may want a full hour, or 45 minutes to ensure we capture all potential viewers – especially, when other properties in the area are open at a similar time.
We will specify certain collateral to be merchandised on the kitchen bench, such as:
- Depreciation schedule
- A standard letter of offer (making it easy for inexperienced buyers to purchase)
- A document outlining all the strengths and opportunities of the property
- A rental appraisal from the agency
We insist on our choice of auction location – and approval of the auctioneer.
It is becoming more common, especially for apartment sales, for agents to encourage auctions at an auction house, but though this makes life easier and more profitable for the auctioneer, it may not be in the best interest of the sale.
OK, so now we’re confident, we’ve found the best agent for the job, and negotiated the best terms, but how can we be sure they will perform as promised?
Well, our service doesn’t end there.
Pre Marketing
We will monitor the creation of marketing and advertising materials, editorial content, and online presence.
We will ensure your property is presented to its greatest advantage and to appeal to the widest range of buyers possible.
We will ensure high quality photography is produced and that your property is represented with maximum appeal – and that there are enough photos to capture all of its best features. We may also request photographs of the street if it’s an attractive location.
We agree, monitor and adjust open for inspection times, to ensure they align with the availability of our target buyers.
During the Campaign
We operate a secret shopper service on the first day of inspections to ensure all agreed points are being delivered. (There is a small additional fee for this service on properties under $1.5m, and offered free of charge for properties over $1.5m).
Once the campaign has commenced, you will become the direct contact for your agent, but we stay close thorough the whole process.
Agents are required to keep us in the loop with all communications, so we may continue to monitor progress and collaborate with them to achieve the best result for you.
Ready to sell?
You are more than welcome to use these tips to help you select an agent for your sale, though if you would like our support – and access to our full selection criteria, recruitment process, and market data, call us for a chat to explore how we might work together.
We’ll be happy to send you a sample Agency Recommendation Report to give you an idea of what’s involved.
Just call us on 1800 075 234 or stop by our website and send us a message.
Whatever you decide, please remember that you are in control. This is your property and you want to be sure you’re getting the very best support available on the terms that are right for you.
Good luck!
Find out more about Seller’s Assit.