Do you always do accompanied viewings? Sometimes? Almost never?
The link below is to the best blog on the subject we have seen, by Stephen Brown.
As he so rightly (well, in Eye’s view) says – vendors are not part of your sales team. They know their home but they almost certainly do not know how to sell it.
As more and more budget agents come on to the market, it seems to us that accompanied viewings are an extremely important part of a high street agent’s armoury.
A budget agent – and by that we don’t necessarily mean all online agents – is cheap, but cheap for a reason. At some of the prices they charge, and given the remoteness of many operations, no wonder part of their message is to tell vendors that they are the best people to show potential buyers around.
Well, this blog explains exactly why vendors are the worst people.
Do you agree?
http://www.sjbconsultancy.co.uk/blog/vendors-are-not-your-sales-team.html
People buy houses, they are not sold them. I have never met a salesperson with the silver tongued ability to persuade someone to buy a house they did not like. If you credit yourself with having sold one then you are an 48$£. They bought it.
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Blue – I think you're a little narrow minded if you think the role of a sales agent is to "persuade someone to buy a house they don't like", that is not the role of a sales agent.
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Dave. An EA is not a sales person other than in that they need to sell themselves to gain the instruction.
The way buyers shop for property has changed, the buyer has more control. They browse, they eliminate, they select, they book a viewing, all without the need to speak to an EA.
Selling has been replaced by marketing.
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Do you know why Blue?
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Yes, because it is preferable for buyers to not have to engage with a "salesperson".
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I am not sure you are correct Blue and can't remember ever seeing anything to support such a claim. Have you got a link to where you read that? I would be interested to read the research (I can put that on me CPD return)
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Sorry, no link. I witnessed it and experienced it. Plus it is what all my clients say ( and pay for). Does that still count ?
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Having conducted more viewings than I care to remember I can certainly attest the owner wading it and trying to hijack the viewing is usually the kiss of death. They try to sell it and buyers don't like a sales pitch, particularly a bad one, you can see the shutters come down and they politely shuffle towards the door.
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Looking for a house at the moment and must have done maybe 20 viewings in the last 6 months. The best viewings are where the agent or the home owner just leave us alone until the end (or remain out of the way on the same floor if needed) to see if we have any questions. The worst viewings have been where I've asked questions and the agent says "I'll have to ask the owner".
As Blue says above buyers can do a huge amount of research online now. Many people move locally so already know the area. They just need to see if they like the house and most of the time that happens when they are left to walk around without being hassled. Much like how I hate retail assistants following you in a shop… If I need help I'll ask.
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Blue – Well said, sir. The only time agents deploy recognisable sales techniques is when they are trying to win the instruction – which is why so much emphasis is placed on this area by so many of the self-appointed gurus in this business (that and "Getting Price Reductions," another aspect of so-called estate agency "training" that we don't tell the punter about…) As we all know, getting the instruction is everything. After that, agents are basically facilitators. In other words, they provide a service, not a sale!
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Fencesitter – You're forgetting that agent's also ring potential buyers in order to "sell" them the property over the phone prior to viewing. A perfect example of this would be recently we had a buyer on the go who had viewed a couple of properties with us and also viewed some other properties with some other agents. After a week or two we got back in touch with the buyers to see if they wanted to view a new property with us only to find out they had in fact offered on another. Only through local knowledge, experience and selling a new instruction were we able to get them to view, put in an offer and subsequently purchase the property – there are some agents that do more than just sit on their a**e all day – who'd have thought!
Accompanied viewings shouldn't be ruled out completely – an agent can help a buyer look at the positive points of something they may initially find negative and lets be honest, not everyone is going to find the "perfect" home… There is only so much local knowledge you can glean from the internet, most agents are local to the area and may have children who go to local schools who can offer great knowledge, knowledge you can't get from doing a google search.. I do agree however that you can't sell ice to an Eskimo.
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Well said Blue and Fencesitter. The need for viewings to be accompanied is in my opinion one of those myths created by agents as part of justifying their existance. In 30 years in the business, it's been the norm everywhere I've worked that you accompany if required, empty property, during vendors work hours etc, other than that, the vendor does the viewings, and it's always worked.
If I'm asked what an estate agent does, my reply would be that an estate agent sells a service to someone that wants to sell their house. What a lot seem to forget it that a home is not a commodity, and in the vast majority of cases, the buying decision is from the heart, not the head. Houses cannot be 'sold'. The real skill of the agent is to encourage viewings, even if the property in question does not tick all the boxes.
From the other side of the fence I've bought 6 properties in my time, and on every occasion apart from the very first which was a new build, I've been shown round by the owner.
In my time, I've worked in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and a brief foray into Essex, so perhaps whilst on the topic of debunking myths, how critical is the much vaunted local knowledge?
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I agree entirely that the agent’s job isn’t to “sell” the property at the viewing, but I do believe that accompanied viewings are an essential part of the service for numerous reasons. The main one being that agents tend to more selectively filter buyers when they’re investing their own time and money showing them homes. When they’re not, they will just send anybody to view in the hope that it looks like they’re working hard for their vendor.
Accompanying viewings also allows the salespeople/negs to better get to know their buyers, along with their wants and needs. This means they’re better able to instantly select the right buyers when they take on a new property and get early viewings booked in – those comments that suggest this is all taken care of by “marketing on the internet” are way short of the mark. In the last month we’ve sold 5 properties “pre-market” (i.e. before any external advertising) as a result of salespeople being able to quickly and correctly match properties to buyers. In this scenario, buyers are also far more likely to agree to a pre-market viewing if they’ve spent time with a particular salesperson and have faith in his/her ability to recommend appropriate viewings.
A genuinely good sales person will excel at “selling the viewing”. We all know that a great number of properties are bought by buyers who, if left to their own devices, wouldn’t have actually viewed the property in the first place. However, a good salesperson will make a case as to why they should view, the fact that you can easily remove a wall to create the all-important kitchen/diner or perhaps convert part of the garage into a study, etc. If this fails, then you can at least try and tag the viewing onto the back of a viewing tour for the buyer on the basis that “another 5 minutes to view this one won’t hurt”.
Proactively selling viewings is the primary day to day focus of sales people in this business. Without that intervention, it will take much longer to reach the desired level of viewings to sell a home (after all, it is a numbers game) and as all agents know, a sellers biggest enemy is time. The longer you’re on the market, the less you will achieve. It’s this fact that makes a mockery of the “budget” reactive approach to agency. It’s great saving 1% on the agent’s fee, but not so great when you achieve 3% less that should have because it’s taken 8 weeks to sell rather than 3.
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The best estate agents will always accompany viewers.
1. Security
2. Another reason you are paying an agent (You don't have a dog and bark yourself)
3. An agent will make a viewer feel at ease and discuss freely how the property could be changed to fit a new buyer's lifestyle.
4. The viewer may need advice on their own sale as well as a good independent mortgage broker/local solicitor/removal company/likely letting price etc.
5. Many owners are busy and haven't time for viewings
the list goes on…
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Another reason not to use a cheap online agent
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Most serious buyers are on the portals (numerous times) daily, trawling.
Your property will come into their field of view. What impression they gain of that property is down to the quality of the content the agent puts into the listing. There is a big difference between a good and a poor listing. If they failed to be influenced sufficiently by your content to view in person, but, you later persuade them on the telephone to do so. That does not make you a killer sales person, who deserves a pat on the back, it makes you carp at listing. In other words you blew your best opportunity but managed to pull it back by the skin of your teeth.
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Blue. It's clear you're not involved in the industry and live in a fantasy world where every home for sale is set within a chocolate box setting and in beautiful condition.
What about those properties that are not in great shape, or they're in an unfavoured location, or next to a pylon, or back onto a railway etc. The list goes on and on. Irrespective of how good your "listing content" is, these properties get very little interest, especially in a buyers market. If agents simply relied on incoming enquiries (as Budget agents do) these properties would never go under offer. The agent has to "sell" these properties to ensure they get viewings and then work hard to encourage offers and negotiate a deal.
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Shaun, there is a right and wrong way to market even a dump. Guess which one receives more attention. Case in point being a detached property I marketed (and yes it sold), with just as you point out, an electricity pylon blighting its location. Been on the market over 2 years with 2 different agents and chuff all viewings. Remarketed it got more viewings in the first month than it had in 2 years. Ditto the numerous doer uppers I have marketed. In fact I consider myself, if anything, a specialist at shifting properties that other agents have fluffed on. It's a big market.
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And you manage all this without the need for a proactive sales team? We always use professional photographer, floor plans etc but sometimes it really is impossible to put "lipstick on a pig" and good old fashioned call outs are required.
Tell me Blue, do you hire sales people or rely purely on incoming enquiries?
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Good question Shaun. I price correctly and I market well. 90% of the time that does the trick. Because I'm known for doing that, more serious buyers are drawn to me and register with me for "whats next" and trust my answer. My approach is to spend my energy making the property easier to buy rather than needing to "sell"it. But to answer your question yes we also "broaden their horizons".
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