Inspiration

What to take on an instruction

RAT 70 (Rawlings Agency Tip)

Do you take details of properties you have sold with you on an instruction? I hope so. But this can be extremely limiting as far as the client is concerned unless you have overwhelming market share and happen to have sold something precisely like their property for a great price recently.

It’s important to encourage the seller to consider the value of their property through the eyes of potential buyers. Those buyers are probably looking at property with several agents - not just you, and they will make their relative buying decision based on how your client’s property compares with others available on the market.

So, in addition to (rightly) highlighting what you have sold, it is even more important to identify which properties currently available will influence the price of yours. So take along details of other agents’ stock with you in order to help you position your client’s property saleably.

This demonstrates your transparency, authority, and comprehensive knowledge of the market. Even better – you can use the conversation to have a gentle dig at your competitors with comments such as “this property in Cedar Drive has been on the market with ABC Agents for over a year and remains unsold. Very odd – we usually sell most of our stock within a few weeks!” or “XYZ agency is known to overprice property in order to impress the vendor, only to find they can’t sell it once they have the instruction. For example, look at this flat in Beechdale Rd. They have had it on the market unsold for seven months and see how the price has come down over that time. Disgraceful!”

Obviously you have to pick your examples carefully and make sure that you don’t dig a hole for yourself, but you get the point!

Most agents don’t do this. Do you? It works!

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© Richard Rawlings 2012
Richard Rawlings is the founding director of Estate Agency Insight, which specialises in helping estate agencies harness opportunity through innovative method, marketing, publicity, and training. He can be contacted at or on 0845 838 1354.

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