“Why on earth did you show me this property?” – As an Estate Agent this either means you are about to get your ear chewed off for not listening to what the customer is looking for OR you are about to get your ear chewed off for showing them another property that they want to buy.

You Didn’t Listen

Really? You had the customer on the phone or in your office and all you managed to get was the amount of bedrooms they want and a price. My advice to you is to pack your bags, shut the office door behind you and head for a career in fast food (they never listen to my order either!)

“But … that’s all the information they gave me”, I hear you say.  Well, let me explain something to you, your job is to find out exactly what they want and I really do mean exactly what they want. Now it may not exist and that’s when you have to advise them of just how close you can get and see if they are flexible.

It’s a case of turning the impossible into reality.

You’ve found another property for them to buy.

Hugs all round ! You may have complicated the issue for the purchaser, but it is a rare treat that a customer gets a choice of more than one property that they want to buy. So what can you do to help? If the customer is unsure of the area, then use your local knowledge to help or maybe it will all boil down to timescales with your vendor – whatever it is I advise you to help all you can – It’s a great service to offer.

THE GOOD:

In general a purchaser will have around 10 points on a list for their dream home, in reality 8 of these will do the trick, they may still offer on the property if it is less, but the chances are their offer will be lower too. When you click with a purchasers needs, they praise you for your hard work and the vendor is happy as you are not bringing around “Time Wasters” (Which is your fault for not property matching correctly).

THE BAD:

We’ve all been there as Estate Agents, arrive at the property and wait for the customer to appear, and when they do they make it in to the first room and say it’s not for them and leave – in some cases you’ve even told them its not right for them and they still want to look! It got worse since the property portals lurched into life (don’t get me wrong, I think they are fantastic), the very second you go live with a property the phones and emails all start to light up, viewing … viewing … viewing and unless you have 40 members of staff at hand it can be a struggle keeping up with the demand and trying to qualify all the customers, so you make appointments in the hope you can find out more at that time (especially if they want to view the same afternoon it went live). On the portals they have access to photos, floor plans, sizes and a street view and still some don’t make it over the threshold and this can upset your vendors on the very first day of business.

THE GOD DAMN AWFUL:

The house you are about to show needs so much work and is priced accordingly that you have 20 viewings on it within the first hour – you’ve let the vendor know and they are ecstatic. Every single customer is aware that it will have to be a cash purchase as it may be un-mortgagable or require a huge deposit. Now ensues a barrage of negativity, this needs doing, that needs doing, this isn’t very good, you’ll never sell this and the one that shows interest only has a 5% deposit – by the time you get back to the office however there are 10 offers waiting for you from those same customers. So no matter how bad you felt that your latest instruction was being rubbished, your mood gets lifted by knowing that even the God Damn Awful really is a thing of beauty.