Good and ordinary RE Agents

[hugh72]

I went to LOTS of opens and also made appointments to view many properties recently.
What stood out was the difference in agents, some were excellent knew their listings but many couldn't answer simple questions about fixtures/fittings and heating/cooling etc.
One agent just stood in the kitchen as people viewed the house with no attempt to interact with the very few people who turned up, I don't know how he thought it was going to sell. I would hate to have a useless agent like this if I was selling. When I approached him all he offered was the brochure.
One agent didnt return my call for information on a property which I know is still available and several had no idea about possible market rent, not that I couldn't estimate it anyway. The most common question was what was my upper price range.
No follow up call? Most properties there are on the market for several months so I expected a bit more effort for their commission.
A couple were interested and made an effort to engage with me and offer other listings they had but most didn't.
Other than turning up and having keys many offered nothing
Do others have similar observations?

 

[Xenia IM]

Yes spot on - that's the real estate industry in a nut shell!

 

[Colin Rice]

The 60/20/20 rule applies to all professions and life in general.

60% are average.

20% are incompetant.

20% are experts in thier field.

This ratio applies to the 20% of experts as well.

Maybe real estate agents are an exception to the 60/20/20 ratio due to relative ease of entrance?

 

[travelbug]

Same as in any business. There are those that are good at their job and those that aren't.
Surely they realise that when people are looking to sell their home they are also buying so go to open homes and see how agents go about their business.

There are agents that you want to buy from and agents you want to sell with- and never the twain shall meet.

 

[Colin Rice]

There are agents that you want to buy from and agents you want to sell with- and never the twain shall meet.

Buy from cowboys and sell with experts.

 

[mouseburger]

Yes. I've been dealing with a mixed bag. Some have been knowlegeable and responsive to queries. Others were either uncommunicative or condescending. Or they didn't follow up on requests for info and spammed me with irrelevant crap from their mailing lists except what I asked for like the contract for sale.

One dodgy agent gave out brochures with a different agent's name on it, but said that was HIS name and number when I asked for his contact details. The other agent wasn't impressed when I rang him in the middle of his family gathering to ask about the unit, which he knew nothing about. When I managed to get the contract for sale from the dodgy one, it turned out he was the owner (at the inspection he talked as if the owner was a different person); the building report was 2 years out of date, and one of the rooms might have been an illegal extension. Obviously I left it at that.

 

[mouseburger]

Surely they realise that when people are looking to sell their home they are also buying so go to open homes and see how agents go about their business.

You'd think so, but some people have just no business sense.

 

[freerange]

Any tips on finding a good one? Currently looking to sell my ppor never sold a house before, dealt with plenty of crap ones at opens etc.

The house next door is currently up for sale and i got chatting to the agent, he seemed pretty good. Did a report on my property gave what i thought was a reasonable value on it, but ive never really seen him selling in the area before through re.com. Obviously want to get a few opinions also.

 

[Big Will]

Look at the sold section on RE.com or domain.com this will show you who has sold the most and is most active in the market. Then attend their open house/s to see how they are, how they follow up etc etc.

Seeing who has the most listings could be they just buy the listing but over quoting the vendors.

If you have been monitoring the market you should know roughly how long the agent takes to sell a property and the discounting from advertised price or how their campaigns works.

End of the day any agent can give you the price you want to hear, doesn't mean it will happen. Look at how they market a property, why or ask them why they market the property this way and recent comparable sales in the area and how your stacks up against them, tell them you want to hear things that are good about yours over the comparable but more importantly things that your property lacks compared to the others (this one sometimes is hard to hear).