This article was originally published to Simone Curley’s LinkedIn on November 4th 2020.
Real estate is an industry built on relationships. Without networking and referrals, your business would struggle to survive. As an agent, referrals and repeat business are the greatest compliments. To know that someone trusted me enough to choose me again or refer to their family or friends is an honour.
Early last year, I was contacted to sell a property in Monbulk. I’d been referred by a former client’s neighbour who I met when selling a property a few years ago. I was faced with a dilemma. Firstly, I had no local knowledge of Monbulk (other than a Sunday drive to the Dandenong Ranges) and secondly, HomeGround Real Estate does not have a sales division. The sale was an emotional one so they needed to trust their agent.
While I was unable to list the property, I knew I could help them through the process as a vendor advocate.
We researched local agents and met with three agents to determine their opinion of value, method of sale, marketing costs and strategy, plus their commission. The other deciding factor was how active they were in the area and to know if they had a good database of buyers for the particular property. This information was summarised and presented to the vendor for their review.
Fast forward a few weeks and all the documentation was in order, marketing was complete and the property was online. We then had the first open for inspection.
In one week the property was sold. The selling agent focussed on the buyers and we focussed on the vendor and between the two of us we received a fantastic result for both parties.
The question that all vendors ask is “How much will it cost me to use you as a vendors advocate?” Nothing! The vendor only has to pay the commission to the selling agent who will pay a percentage of the commission to HomeGround Real Estate.
We have now helped 12 vendors sell their properties and although there is comfort in having an agent on your side there is an additional benefit knowing that all profits are reinvested through Launch Housing to help fulfil their mission to end homelessness.