How To Protect Yourself From Aggressive Sales Agents

The biggest obstacle to finding or selling your house other than yourself, is the people you hire to help you. And during this process, you don’t spend more time with any other professional other than your real estate agent. But even though you are paying for the services of one, you know that you cannot fully place your trust on him. Because after all they are salespeople. This is just talking about the ones who are working for you. We haven’t even touched on those who are working against you representing the parties on the other side of the table.

Sales people can be a handful. Really, they can be. They can lie. They can cheat. They can stretch the truth. They can tell part of the story. They can do all this-and worse-just to get a sale. All sorts of sales people can fall victim to the temptation of cutting a few corners and bending the truth just to get an easy sale. And that includes those who are supposedly working for you. From people selling you paintings to stockbrokers to insurance sales people, there are many sales people who have all the incentive in the word to bend the truth without lying. This is why in court, witnesses on the stands are require to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”. It will be weird to see them being required to tell” the truth, part of the truth, and some truth with some half-truths”.

It is sad to say that many sales people do not practice the same ethics that witnesses in court are required to. But they are not doing anything illegal. It is so easy to bend the “truth”. For example, an important piece of information is left out and the salesman can easily get off the hook by saying he did not realise that it was that important to the decision maker.

Well, in my personal opinion, the king of these slick and ethically ambiguous sales ‘professionals’ are real estate agents. They deserve extra suspicion because they are selling you your home. That’s right-they are selling you the structure where you and your children will live. If they stretch the truth about your home, you might be putting your family’s lives in danger. And that is just the more obvious part. Your home is where most of your children’s memories will be based on. Surely you want them to have great memories when they look back into their childhood when they grow up. This is why it is very important to deal with property agents in a firm, direct, and no-nonsense manner. Make it clear to your agent that you are the wrong person to mess with. Here’s how you do it.

Come prepared

Before you set up your appointment with a real estate broker or sales person, read up on home sales figures in your area. Read up on how real estate title is passed and how real estate sales are processed in your area. Pay attention to the recent sales in your area. Research the sizes of the homes and the conditions of the homes you’re interested. Thankfully, all this information is available online. Invest a few hours getting ready for your meeting with your real estate agent. Come prepared.

A part of information that buyers and sellers are often not well-versed in is in the transaction process. This is where you usually lose out in terms and conditions of sale. For example, if something is supposed to be completed in 6 to 8 weeks, an agent who wants a shorter time frame can say that 6 weeks is correct. While he can say 8 weeks when his objective is a longer time frame. As you can see, if you don’t know how the process goes about, you can be a victim without even knowing it. You will be able to avoid getting smoked out of a deal when you know your stuff.

Call him out

Once your real estate sales agent is showing you around the different properties, demonstrate to the person that you know your stuff. Ask questions regarding the property and the local market. If the sales person tells you information that you know isn’t true or is very different from information you dug up online, tell him. No question is too simple to ask. Sometimes, agents say things in a matter-of-fact manner intended to make you feel stupid.

Pay attention to how he handles you calling him out. If he tries to lie or tries to dodge your question, you know you’re not dealing with a straight shooter. It would probably be a good idea to drop that sales agent. Why? You can’t trust this person. You need someone who can give you straight answers instead of trying to worm their way out of tight spots. Someone with good soft skills can answer any question in a comprehensive manner without really answering it.

Considering how many things can go wrong with real estate transactions, the last thing you want is to have your case handled by a person who wants to wiggle out of tight situations. You want someone who can handle tough issues head on. You want someone who can look at you in the eye and take care of business. That’s the kind of person who deserves your trust.

Come prepared to your real estate showing appointments. Don’t be afraid to call out your property agent. Worthless agents lie, stretch the truth, and try to dodge your questions. Real trustworthy agents tell you when they don’t have the answer but will work hard to get the answers. Real trustworthy agents are up for a challenge and they won’t try to push you around to get a sale.

Don’t be friends

You might want to be a likeable person by socializing with your agent. But over-indulging in that can open you up for stealthy attacks. By avoiding this trap you set up for yourself, agents will think twice before trying anything funny. They don’t know what you know. So before they try any tricks on you, they need to feel out at what level of a buyer or investor you are.

Keeping a distance is a very basic way to protect yourself. It is something that even newbies can do. Just take not that keeping too big a distance might prevent your agent from doing a good job for you. They do need information to conduct their work. But if things get a little off-topic and you feel that he is trying to become friends, the best move is to back off. You can be friends after the transaction if you want to.

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