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It is in the interest of agents and their clients to get as much money from the property they are selling as is poss.
That's a naive approach, and it may seem to be the obvious solution but doesn't necessarily maximise income for the individual estate agent.
The vast majority of EAs are cunts but I know a couple who aren't. Genuinely nice people, no hints of obnoxious behaviour.
Attempting to maximise a particular sale (to maximise their share of the commission) can often end up taking up way more of their time which could be spent on other clients/sales. The extra commission extracted out of on one sale is not going to be as much as the commission on a whole extra sale.
The way a good EA works is two-fold:
- really understanding what a client is looking for (and not just taking them at their word as most people looking for properties don't really know what they need) also adapting the understanding after each property they view. So many times a client will suddenly want a particular feature after seeing it at a property they have viewed. The brief is fluid and also affected by deadlines/timescales.
- keeping the needs of all of your active clients in your head and being able to quickly work out who would be interested in a new property that is coming on to the market
Many EAs are just twats that use a scattergun approach and most of the work is done by the client finding the properties themselves.
So many times my mate has made very quick (in EA terms) sales by having an idea of a few buyers when doing the valuation, sometimes matching them up on the day. He'd also trade clients with a friend working at another estate agent. If it's reciprocal then it benefits both companies, plus the vendors and the buyers.
When my wife sold her flat the EA that came to do the valuation said that they already had a developer client that was interested in any flats that came up in that block. We were matched up and the sale went through very quickly and with zero fuckery by the buyer (I also negotiated a lower %-age because of this, and agreed it would go up to their normal rate if this developer didn't come through).
- really understanding what a client is looking for (and not just taking them at their word as most people looking for properties don't really know what they need) also adapting the understanding after each property they view. So many times a client will suddenly want a particular feature after seeing it at a property they have viewed. The brief is fluid and also affected by deadlines/timescales.
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Greenbank
Seems to me that the industry needs tighter controls. Specifically a property inflation cap. It is in the interest of agents and their clients to get as much money from the property they are selling as is poss. At a time of low interest rates we see property prices rising day-on-day as each new client looking for the ‘best’ agent is tempted with a bit more bricks n mortar value than they were expecting. Open-house selling just feeds this inflation as every potential buyer feels they have to up their game a bit to out-do the other bids.
When the interest rates rise owners are stuck with mortgage payments they didn’t predict and can’t sustain and buyers have less loan capacity for purchases. All because of greedy agents feeding aspirational home owners onto the property market (life financial millstone) rollercoaster.