Investing in your Education
How to deal with estate agents.
I remember those first thoughts going through my mind when I realised that I would have to sit in front of several estate agents with some degree of knowledge if I wanted to be successful at buying property. I can tell you now that I was a little nervous, silly now when I look back and that was then and this is now. So if you are prepared to be patient, play the long game and take it one step at a time it can be a painless experience.
I would like to share some tips with you on dealing with the agents but before I do there are a couple of things I would like to discuss with you first.
I knew it would help me when sitting in front of the agents if I had a degree of knowledge about property. By that I don’t mean being an expert or having all the answers, its more about you and having confidence in yourself, which will then come across when you are talking to the agents. So for me it was a case of doing my diligence and researching my area. If you do a good job on this, it may take a little time but it will be time well spent. And with the Internet today you can do most of this without leaving home so no excuses and you could even work it around your job if you wanted to. For more info on diligence and finding your area check out the “Finding your area” section.
And lastly its important to be yourself. You need to have a degree of intelligence about you yes, but you also want to be enjoying yourself. For me the whole relationship building is now a challenge that I look forward to and I have a lot of fun with it.
So here is my guide to dealing with Estate Agents.
- Never register your details over the phone, always go into the agents. If you don’t then how can you use the laws of influence.
- Don’t try and be the big shot, let them feel they are the experts.
- Important to build rapport so find some common ground.
- First impressions count. For me it will always be smart casual.
- Use the right abbreviations, for example prop (property) and sols (Solicitors) are only used in written context not spoken. So understand from a linguistic point of view.
- Never ever cut the estate agent out of the deal – sometimes its possible to deal with the vendor directly even after the agent has introduced you. Just make sure you communicate with the agent and pay his commission.
- Multi listed property – a property may be offered to you by multiple agents but the purchase must always be made through the original source.
- Rewarding Agents – If a property exchanges or completes I would buy the agent a bottle of champagne as a way of thank you for their effort. It has to be a surprise and unexpected.
- Finders fee – never offer a finders fee, word will spread that you are underhand and your reputation will be ruined.
- Never pull out of a deal- its very easy to say this but sometimes its difficult in a volatile market and with finance constantly changing. However your Credibility is important so where possible you should always try and complete on the deal.
