When selecting the right agent for you and your home, quite often we look at numbers of homes sold, or prices achieved (both very valid metrics), but in 2020, another quality you should be looking for is “adaptability” as we continue to see rapid changes in how we do business.
While there are certainly some very successful “specialists” that focus in just a single area or property type, in a market like we have in Cairns, more often than not an agent has to be ready to deal with a wider range of homes – from a 1 bedroom unit in Cairns North, to an elevated 4 bedroom in the hills of Bayview Heights (and often more varied than that). You’ll come across everyone from a young first home buyer dipping their toes in the market, to a family ready to take the next step, an investor looking to take their future into their own hands or an older couple downsizing for the future. Each will have their own needs, wants and fears – and the agent will have to read each of them.
Beyond people, this year has also thrown another curve ball at agents – the rise of the virtual inspection, though the real thing is still alive and kicking. This week I had both sides of the coin coming out in force across two homes – one, on the south side and priced in the $400,000s had (among normal inspections) buyers inspecting via video and offers submitted sight unseen (a more common occurrence these days). The other, a home in that important 5km radius of the CBD was priced in the $800,000s and was a bit more traditional, with face-to-face inspections throughout and the lucky buyers inspecting not once or twice but three times before being ready to put pen to paper and secure their new home (and just in time for Christmas too!).
It’s no longer just about the eye contact and firm handshake – now it’s also the steady hand behind the selfie camera, the confidence to make a stranger comfortable in a new setting and just a pinch of Better Homes and Gardens host to make it look like you know what you’re doing and haven’t downloaded Zoom 15 minutes before the viewing…
It’s a strange new world we’re in now, but at least its exciting!