Many people underestimate the job of an estate agent. They may assume we just advertise a house on the market and ‘wait for the phone to ring’. But there’s so much more to the process of a house being bought and sold.
An estate agent’s job is rewarding when a sale is agreed and there are so many aspects of the job that clients don’t realise. The work going on behind the scenes is both fascinating and vital for a house sale to successfully go through. Most estate agents work on a commission basis where they won’t get paid until the sale has gone through. This can be a risk when working on commission where the agent may come away empty handed. They could potentially end up out of pocket which does occasionally happen. Spending their own money and resources is often an occurrence for agents and this money won’t come back until the house has been sold successfully.
Here are six things an estate agent does behind the scenes.
Market the property
The agent will advertise their listings to get more exposure to the right market of buyers. Creating a listing starts with professional photos being taken around the home and getting a layout design. Once the listing is ready, they will be posted to various places such as search engines, newspapers, magazines, brochures, flyers and outside the estate agent office window if they have a main office base. At Shires, we also posting listings on our social media pages.
Negotiating with offers and buyers
An agent’s time is often spent communicating within their network so they are ensuring those buyers get matched with the right homes for them. There is a lot of research undertaken to make sure the agent has lots of knowledge of each house they are marketing and selling.
Research is key
An estate agent needs to have full knowledge of the property market within their area. They will spend a large amount of time researching lots of property sales, the prices and all of the data surrounding that. This is undertaken to understand the area well where they are negotiating and to know the current market situation.
When matching the right price in order to list a home, each agent will complete a CMA known as a Comparative Marketing Analysis. In a CMA, there are factors such as: the average price per square metre in an area, any recent house sale prices in the same area and comparing other prices of houses that are actively on the market. The CMA mainly helps bring together a price bracket that is reasonable for that specific property.
Attending home inspections
Estate agents will usually be at the home inspection so they can record any valuable information. Recording this will help with rounding together the asking price for the property.
Ensuring the process is a ‘smooth ride’
Not every property sale will go according to plan, so agents are there to help the clients be protected from any unnecessary issues that may arise. If these issues need to have the clients involved, the agent will inform them. Being a good problem-solver and working well under pressure is always a good asset for an estate agent.
Networking
An agent will ensure they have a full network of other estate professionals to help with the buying process by finding a suitable buyer for the property. An agent will also help out other agents so the right buyer can be matched with the right home. This also includes referring buyers to other agents.
Keeping a good conversation within the house buying and selling process is an important aspect for an estate agent that they actively try to uphold, making sure the clients are informed of all the necessary steps along the way and that those clients are also happy with the outcome whether they are buying or selling a property.
