When it comes to facilitating a property sale, strong collaboration between buying agents and selling agents can provide advantages for all parties.
As two industry veterans from either side of the fence reveal, working well together often helps achieve a positive outcome for both the buyer and the seller.
House Search Australia’s Jacque Parker and Di Jones’s David Howe explain the benefits of building trust and fostering good working relationships in a recent REINSW Webinar.
“Over the years, especially the last three years or so, I believe buying agents are becoming more and more professional in dealing with selling agents, and as such there is a collaboration between the two to ensure that the benefits and outcomes for both buyers and sellers are met,” says Howe.
“Buyers’ agents are on the rise, and as more buyers engage our services it’s more important that we know how to work together,” Parker adds. “We both bring a lot to the party.”
Benefits of collaboration
So what are some of the key benefits of working with a buyer’s agent on behalf of your vendor?
- Establishing early contact with agents to reach ‘hot’ buyers
- Gauging what the property is worth
- Pre-qualifying buyers
According to Howe, you can achieve significant progress prior to launching a property to the market.
“In our agency, when we list a property our first point of contact is with all the buyers’ agents out there,” Howe says. “We do what’s called a champagne preview, inviting the buyers’ agents to come and have a look at the property we’ve just listed. The reason we’re doing that is because we know the buyers’ agents are working with very hot buyers that are ready to pounce on the right property,” he adds.
“At that viewing, we also will gauge whether we are pricing the property in the right space.”
Parker supports Howe’s view of the property landscape at the moment. “As fellow agents … we’re very aware of what we believe a property is worth in the current market, and I notice myself that a lot of selling agents are asking us the question, ‘well what do you think it’s worth?’, rather than you telling us,” she says.
“We’ve got three prices here, haven’t we? We’ve got what the vendor wants, what the market will bear, and what a buyer will pay.”
But it’s not just about the price, it’s also about the individual property itself.
“In some areas there can be a really low supply of a particular property, so when one does come on to the market, the buyers that are best qualified are those that are in a position to purchase and usually have been looking for some time,” says Parker.
How important is it to deal with a buyer’s agent in terms of pre-qualifying buyers?
“I do believe the buyers’ agents have qualified their buyers before they bring the buyers to the property,” says Howe. “They want to make sure they’re selecting the right house for the buyer.”
To discover more insights on this important relationship, watch the Webinar: Buying and selling agents: Trust = outcomes.
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