I remember that when I first started out in Real Estate I had to really prove myself, as does everyone. As previously mentioned, friends and family always said you have to be brutal to be a real estate agent. You’re not ruthless, how will you cope? This made my drive to succeed even stronger. I quickly learnt that real estate agents had a certain reputation and I wanted to change this perception one day at a time.
Having been in sales over 25 years I knew how to sell, how to negotiate and tap into people’s emotions and hopes. What I didn’t realize was that the reason real estate agents had to be ‘ruthless’ had nothing to do with the relationships or conversations with buyers or sellers, it was more to do with the competition of other agents.
I learnt that many (not all) agents felt like the only way to win business was to tell clients what they wanted to hear. It’s always nice to hear, ‘Yes John, your home is worth an additional $100,000 more than you initially thought.’ The question you need to ask is, based on what?
Over the years I have seen and heard of many unscrupulous examples of this:
If the agent couldn’t bring the buyer’s offer up to a reasonable level, that they would then work on the seller’s emotions and based on false information, persuade them to come down in price.
Agents taking fake buyers (friends or co-workers) through owners’ homes to show that they had at least some interest. Often this tactic is used to secure a listing in the first place. Of course, every owner wants to hear that the agent has the perfect buyer up their sleeve, especially without them having to spend money on marketing.
It’s common practice unfortunately for an agent to give false buyer inspection numbers to an owner after an open home, to make themselves look good or because they don’t want the owner to be aware that the strategy, they put in place didn’t work.
It’s also well known that certain agents will give their owner low (false) price feedback throughout the campaign so that when a slightly higher offer comes in it looks like a good price.
I have had many conversations with disgruntled buyers after meeting agents who refused to take their offer (on contract) to the seller (this is against the law btw). Often it was just a starting offer, and the buyer would have been willing to enter into a negotiation with the seller but didn’t get the chance.
I have heard on many occasions from buyers who have expressed interest to an agent on a property that they like, then not being advised by the agent of another offer from a different buyer which had swiftly been accepted without the agent giving them an opportunity to offer themselves. Often the buyer says they would have actually paid more than the accepted offer. It makes me wonder, is the agent really working to get the seller the most amount of money? Or are they just being lazy?
When it comes to taking an offer from a buyer, agents are well known to tell the buyer that there is another offer on the table (when there isn’t) to instigate a higher offer from that particular buyer (this is also against the law).
Its unfortunate that in general, Real Estate Agents carry a bad reputation. You just need to learn how to sniff out the good ones. I realized a long time ago that many agents are convinced that they had to act a certain way in order to secure business.
The good news is that you don’t have to be ruthless to be a good agent, you have to be patient, hardworking, open to constant learning, a great listener, and a ridiculous negotiator.
I would love to talk to you more about my strategies and how we achieve the absolute best price for your property