Why your friendly neighbourhood agent is often the best.

Real estate agents, as a whole, don’t have the best rep(utation) out there. Regularly lumped down the bottom of the trustworthy list alongside 2^nd hand car salesmen and politicians, agents can be accused of everything from greed to a casual relationship with the truth, and yet ultimately they negotiate the exchange of what for most people is their most prized asset. How can these two facts co-exist?

For a start, I like to think that for the most part, agents aren’t too bad and the actions of the very few unfortunately tarnish the reputation of the vast majority of honest, law-abiding advisors. Particularly in smaller towns like Cairns (and even more so in places like the Tablelands, Innisfail or Mossman, you can only get away with being a ratbag so many times before no-one wants to deal with you any more.

Assuming then that you are picking an agent that does the right thing, there tends to be three factors that let one agent stand out from another – capability, affordability (value) and likeability.

Like in most fields, if you’re excellent and have the results to prove it, you’re generally going to rise to the top. Given the transparency around property sales and price data, this one is pretty hard to fake these days so the proof is in the pudding with number of sales, prices sold etc. When you are strictly by the numbers (particularly investors) then this might be your first and last consideration.

Affordability of course follows, assuming that everyone in front of you is capable of doing the job, owners typically want to know what that job will cost them (and get it down as low as they can). I’ll save for another column my thoughts and experience on getting what you pay for, but lets acknowledge that all other things being equal, cost then comes into it.

The final (X) factor if you will is likeability. There is a big difference in inviting someone into your home because you want them there, versus because you feel you need them there. When we like someone, we are more likely to listen to their advice, are willing to spend more time with them and generally feel a lot better about it when the bill comes dues. Whether its sharing a commonality, the right amount of humble or just being a pleasure to be around, a good smile can sometimes be as winning as the magic contract. Just make sure you bring the contract too!