Some say real estate agents are like Introduction Agencies for the property industry, seeking ‘candidates’ of buyers and vendors and then endeavouring to match the two to make a perfect match. In some respects that’s true, but a good agent will be doing much more than sitting in the office waiting for the right buyer to walk through the door!
Much of what a real estate does is about establishing connections and developing relationships with potential buyers and vendors within the community in which we work. And it is important here to clarify that I don’t mean just randomly collecting names and email addresses to add to a monolithic but generic database.
The catchcry for many industries is to ‘know your client’ and that is most definitely true in property. A name on a database is of little use if the agent does not also know the face and have some insight into the family, finances and future goals of each individual.
That’s why in our business we spend a lot of time talking and even more time listening. It’s so we can learn what our clients want and know what is going on in our community. Not because we are nosey, rather because it means we can do our job better.
Again, we don’t simply sit back and wait for people to walk through the door. You might be surprised by how often a property will be sold to a buyer not actively in the market. Agents with the right local knowledge and the right contacts use that insight to proactively present properties to select contacts.
It’s not necessarily about a hard sell. It’s about the ‘right’ sale and good agents work hard to build a level of understanding and integrity with clients so they trust a recommendation that a property might be of interest. A carefully considered and tailored marketing strategy will introduce a property to the right people at the right time and they will take the time to check it out.
So don’t underestimate the value of relationships in real estate.