Selling a property is one of the most stressful decisions you will ever make, so having access to accurate, independent and objective advice including the same data that agents use is critical. It will empower you to make informed decisions and ensure you get the best possible outcome. The best part is there is no additional cost! The fee or commission you pay the agent is shared but you will pay no more to have vendor advocate by your side.

How do agent’s feel about advocates?

The agents we appoint welcome our support as we make the entire process more transparent and see us as an ongoing stream of revenue (subject of course to our high expectations). only use the best agents, we arrange the appraisals, interview the agents, assess their advice and then oversee the entire selling process right through to settlement and beyond. In some instances, our clients prefer not to deal with the agent at all!

So, what is the big deal? 

It’s the transparency. The biggest fear agents have is that if they tell you the what the property is really worth (the dreaded bottom line), the next agent won’t, and they will miss out and all the future listing opportunities that goes with it because they were “too negative”.  Most vendors invite 2 or 3 agents to appraise their property from which the winner is selected…. a bit like Master Chef and guess what? The final candidates are usually outstanding. More often than not, the advice is the same, the advertising schedules are identical, and the pricing is…. you guessed it, the same? Even the testimonials are glowing! Have you ever read a bad one?  Each agent will have their points of difference upon which the battle lines are often fought and won. Some vendors go on gut feeling and the positive relationship they have built up through all the incessant follow up that the agent puts in place to win your business! The problem with all of this is it isn’t objective and that is precisely what an advocate does.

 Here is an excellent case study:

Recently a client contacted me to seek my advice. They had already called in their preferred agent who was now pressing them for the listing, and I guess they just wanted some reassurance that they were making the right decision. I advised them to seek a 2^nd opinion and recommended an agent. The object of seeking a 2^nd opinion was to seek clarity and since I was not involved with their dealings with their preferred agent, another opinion was critical. The advice the 2^nd agent provided was far more realistic and after all the options were explained to my clients in a plain-speaking approach, they decided to go with their preferred agent but with a very different price platform. You should have seen the grin on his face of the agent when I handed over the authority…not one word was said about the price range but if my client had gone ahead with their original proposal, the auction would have been a disaster. Whilst this was not an agency that I would have recommended for, the person handling the sale was well known to me and rated very highly.

Footnote:

There are many outstanding agents to choose from, but the listing driven nature of this industry makes it highly competitive. Our aim is to engage an agent that is transparent and achieve the highest possible sale price without the stress.