The UK estate agent industry is thought to be worth around £11.1 billion. It has experienced a steady growth rate in the past few years. So, if you’ve always been interested in properties, why not consider starting your own business as an estate agent in the lucrative sector?
Some homes get listed and sold within hours or days! But then there are also many home sellers/landlords whose homes stay listed for weeks or months on end without anything more than a couple of inquiries!
What’s the difference between an effective home seller and the rest of the pack? Siddharth Mahajan, Tulip Homes Owner shares some essential tips on how to build your competitive advantage.
Assess yourself
Chances are you’ve spent more time thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of properties than you have considering the strengths and weaknesses of you as a brand and as a business. Regularly ask yourself the following questions to assess your goals.
- What kind of clients do I want to attract?
- What are the needs of those clients?
- Can I fulfill them?
- What sets me apart from other Realtors?
Once you have a clear understanding of your business and your potential clientele, you can focus your marketing efforts on emphasizing your strengths.
Be Proactive: Make the house ready to move in
Structural damage? Leaky plumbing? Unkempt areas? Ice dam problems from a brutal winter? Damaged cabinets? The list could go on and on! In essence, you are not only preparing to put your home on the market but to be ready for the buyer’s inspection as well. So, start giving attention to anything that would put you off, if you were looking to buy the property. If you’re looking to get a great price for the sale of your property, in being proactive you will have begun your journey towards this.
Don’t Always Focus on Selling
While knowing good sales tactics is beneficial to real estate agents, you don’t always need to make the hard sell. In fact, there are many times when separating yourself from the stereotype of a pushy real estate salesperson can help your career.
Early in your career, excellent photography skills and the ability to write compelling descriptions about listings will go much farther than selling skills. Even if you’re starving for a deal, think of yourself as a consultant, rather than a salesperson, for better results.
You’ll also want to focus on your soft skills, including people skills, self-motivation, and problem-solving, which are some of the top abilities that real estate agents need.
Be an Effective Communicator
You’re an active listener trying to actually understand what your client needs and wants. You speak authentically, avoiding sales speak. You’re also really great at keeping in touch, using the method your client prefers (phone, text, email).
Be an Excellent Educator
Siddharth Mahajan, Tulip Homes Owner believes you need to prepare buyers and sellers for the process with the facts they need to be proactive and make informed decisions. Because empowering your clients creates trust and referrals. You should aim to be a great mentor for junior agents. Most essentially, educate yourself by learning from the successes of other agents.
Gain experience
You can’t run before you can walk so gain experience by working alongside a mentor. There is no substitute for actual deal experience, so while you might be itching to get out there and make a sale on your own, slow it down and learn from the best first. Take a job with a successful broker and offer to assist them with their deals. Real estate is not just about ‘selling’, and there is a lot to learn about surveys, title insurance, deeds, licenses, encumbrances, and more. If you’ve seen and been part of successful deals the first hand, you’ll feel much more capable when you get on the job.
Turn into the Market Master
You’ve got to have your finger on the pulse of the neighborhoods you “own”. You must know the best schools, restaurants, and amenities for your target areas. Learn who built each subdivision, and the issues they have (shifting soil, crime rate, etc.). Most important, you should know the market value of the properties in these neighborhoods.
Keep an upward trajectory of self-improvement
Aside from the aforementioned factors that enhance professionalism, top real estate agents are often self-starters.
- They have an entrepreneurial commitment to getting better at what they do
- They work on their self-confidence and maintain a positive attitude.
- They know how to be assertive without stepping on the client’s toes.
- They make an effort to engage with people while also investing in themselves.
Real estate agents need patience; patience in dealing with other agents, with lenders, with title companies, with inspectors, with appraisers, with banks, and yes, even with their clients. The real estate sales process is long and arduous. Patience is required to navigate the often stormy waters of a real estate sales transaction. The patient real estate agent, one that can shrug off the inconsequential and zero in with laser focus on the deal is the agent that closes those transactions that can slip away from the less patient.