Property websites versus reality - Part Two

Cherie Matthews, Link Up Properties Group Director, continues with his story.

So what sells a house in a normal market place?

Let me explain the process. A good estate agency with a manager,two negotiators, administrator and a part timer will make at least thirty outgoing calls to applicants each and motivate or excite the applicants to view properties. If they are enthusiastic enough, the buyers may well view the property as long as it matches their basic criteria. This should result in a negotiator booking approx three to five viewings a day. The key here is outgoing calls. If they do not make those calls they will not sell houses. I have not mentioned the negotiations on offers received on properties - that takes another 24-48 hours. This also includes chain check, financial qualification of the buyer etc.

So why does an agent have to make these outgoing calls to applicants despite the info being made available on the internet? This is because house buying in most cases is about compromise, compromise and compromise. The good agent helps them make thatcompromise. A good agent will make about 150 outgoing calls - per property - from initial instructiontosuccessful completion.

Remember no one will pay the Agent until he brings it to completion.

Does an Agent complete on more sales in a rising market?

Agreeing a sale in a rising market is a lot easier. Fact. Completing on the transaction is a lot more difficult as chains do not complete due to a lack of properties for sale. Ultimately in this market, the agent lacks control as the sellers have control and dictate selling prices, timescales etc. In a normal market an agent has control and vendors are happy to pay an agent a much higher fee to get the job done.

Have we sold more houses because of the internet?

Why do agents then have their own website? An agents website, like his local press advertising, his shop and For Sale board forms a part of his image and helps him attract home sellers to his business. The more sellers who instruct an agent, the more buyers he attracts to his business. If you have properties for sale, with a reasonable marketing strategy in place, the buyers will find you.

Estate Agencyis a very localised business and the law of the land dictates how Estate Agents work. Estate Agency has not changed since ‘God was a boy’. The role of an Agent is to ensure that they act as a middleman in all negotiations between buyer and seller and not act as a Citizens Advice Bureau in the transaction.

All agents know that when buyers and sellers start communicating directly without the Agent, these negotiations stand a very good chance of breaking down. This results in the house being unsold as both parties are very stressed out with the potential move. This is one of the reasons why a majority of private house sales do not go to completion.

So is it important to have 100 trillion hits on your properties?

There is only one buyer per property and website hits are no indication of the saleability of the house. What attracts a page view on a website in my opinion is the quality of the photograph and the price of the property. The same applies to the number of calls generated from an Estate Agent’s newspaper advert. If you giveaway too much property information on the website, people will not call you for more information and you could potentially lose a sale. How many times have you received numerous emails or phone calls on a property that has been under offer for a few months and still displayed on your website as ‘For Sale’ This property appeared cheap to a potential buyer in a rising market.

The internet has exposed an Agent’s business and gives potential sellers an indication as to its market share. The days are long gone where an agent told a potential vendor that he had the biggest market share in that town as the vendor can now check the Agent’s website for clarity. As a result, an Agent with a lower market share will always remain there as the vendors want to instruct an agent with the highest market share or an agent who is seen to be advertising properties for sale similar to theirs. To increase his market share an agent will have to go back to the very basic form of marketing, i.e. aggressive flyers, ‘sold in your street’ leaflets etc. I am not surprised that the internet failed to produce ‘requests for market appraisals’.

Any Agent worth his salt knows that he would rather have one new instruction than 5 new buyers.