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How To Be Among The First To Know When A Property Agent Has A Good Listing
When killer property deals get on the market, they are snapped up quickly with the mass majority of home buyers not even aware that it was available in the first place.
This is assuming the listing went into the public domain at all.
As you might suspect, this is not Best Buy and the best deals don’t get on the market very often.
To get into a position where you are given priority sneak peaks whenever a good deals comes into play, you will have to work your way up an agent’s preferred customer list.
Every capable property agent that has been in this business for a respectable period of time will have a buyers list.
This portfolio of buyers include sellers serviced by the agent who are now looking to buy, buyers who have already bought from the agent, potential buyers who have enquired about current and past listings, business owners seeking properties, family and friends, etc.
When a deal of the month becomes available, an agent will inevitably first see if he can afford it himself.
If not, his team members might get a look at it.
When nobody is seriously going to buy, he starts calling his buyers lists.
Those on top of his list will get the call first.
When he has finally finished calling these people, he will blast by email or SMS to the rest of his list.
By this time, if there are no serious takers, only then will the property get onto a public listing.
An efficient agent can complete this whole cycle within an hour.
If you have yet to build a strong relationship with property agents, you will most likely never see these deals or only find them in the newspapers or public listings websites.
By then you are just picking up the scrapes.
The best way be on the top of an agent’s list is to buy a property from him. This way you will be seen as a real and genuine buyer.
But the paradox is that after buying from an agent, you might not have enough money to buy another property for a few years.
This tells you that even though those who have bought from the agent are on top of the list, very often they are not going to buy.
So you can build a strong relationship with agents just by staying in constant communication with them.
For example, when you are sent information of a new property that is going to be listed, reply to them and give feedback.
Many times, we are just too lazy to reply to them because the property is not what we are looking for. Or that you don’t want to appear too eager to be friends.
But the best response in this instance, is to call back and give your opinion and say what you are looking for.
Talk to them on the phone like a friend instead of treating them like someone working for you.
This is how relationships are built.
When your agents start treating you like a friend, they will want to leave the best for you as well. Your reward is to be one of the first to know about a killer buy.
When you give feedback on why a particular deal does not suit you, the agent will know more and more about what you are looking for. And when something gets on the market that suits you, you can be sure that you will be one of the first to know about it.
So where do you find these agents?
Agents who are most active are also most likely to regularly put up listing in newspapers.
Buy a copy of the newspapers on Saturdays and go through the properties section.
You are going to find hundreds of agents with their contact details promoting property listings.
Another way to find them is to visit show flats of new condo launches.
Just walk in and someone will attend to you.
Leave your contact details and they are sure to follow up with you on promotions and new releases.
But if you are not really serious about building a relationship with these professionals, please don’t waste their time.
They are not professionals just by name. And can smell a phony a mile away.
Exclusivity
When you start engaging property agents to help you, you might find that they want you to sign some kind of contract for exclusivity.
This contract will state that they will represent you for any purchase you will make within a stipulated period of time.
Unless you are in a charitable mood, this is something that you’d want to avoid.
Does it make sense to you if a milkman wants you to sign a contract saying you will pay him a commission every time you visit the supermarket to buy milk?
Don’t get me wrong. Agents deserve to be compensated for brokering these deals.
But signing a buyers exclusive agreement makes no sense to me.
If you really have to sign this contract, just make sure you set standards for giving up your exclusivity.
Maybe you can set a goal for the agent like showing you 10 properties that meet your criteria every month.
Do not confuse this exclusivity contract with an introduction agreement.
Introduction agreements are those that state that your agent will be remunerated if they introduce you to a property through another agent.
In this instance, it is only right and honorable that they are remunerated.
This is also called “co-broke” in street terms.
Whereas exclusive buyers agreements states that you will pay your agent regardless of which agent introduces you to the property. It’s like a fishing hook tactic.
There are high level agents around that have access to a huge number of good listings the very moment they hit the market.
If yours is not one of these agents, I suggest to avoid giving up exclusivity.
A lot of times, property agents just go through the classifieds and show you a listing without adding any value.
You might as well do the work yourself.
And if you have signed this agreement with a particular agent, you will be doing all the legwork and paying the agent for the pleasure of doing the work yourself.
What a sinful irony to suffer from.
If you are stuck with one of these agents, you are missing out on a lot of activity going on on the other side of the curtain.
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