How to find the best real estate agent?

When selling your home and sifting through the real estate jargon to find the best real estate agent is going to be one of the most important decisions in the entire selling process.

So how do you find the best real estate agent that’s right for you? For the typical home owner who sells their home, on average every seven years, the search and research to find the best real etate agent only commences when the decision has been made to sell.

This is common because one generally only consults, engages or will attempt to find the best real estate agent when it’s time to move.

So what influences a potential seller to go with or invite a particular Real Estate Agent to appraise their home?

To find the best real estate agent some home sellers start with their local papers to see who is active and automatically this is an area where they can come undone. What I mean by this their decision is influenced by the volume or number of pages each Real Estate Agent has. If one particular Real Estate Agent has greater volumes of pages than other Real Estate Agents in the area the perception is they’re the best.

Warning: don’t be fooled by this. It may be a particular Real Estate Agent’s strategy to first and foremost push the local paper or they may even encourage larger sized adverts. That is, full pages rather than half pages. For example, one agent’s A schedule may contain three weeks of Full Page’s in the local paper along with sufficient placements on the internet and in other press.

Another real estate agent’s A schedule may first and foremost sway towards an internet strategy by containing larger sized ads on the major internet portals.

Either way, the Vendor has to pay for it! And if a Real Estate Agent can get more marketing dollars to play with they will! Because ultimately it’s about branding themselves and the company they work for rather than the home they’re selling.

I’ll never forget when I was employed as Real Estate Advertising Manager with Fairfax Media one presentation we had from a leading Real Estate Agent in Melbourne said “We live in a privileged world. We are one of very few industries’ where vendor’s pay for our branding” True story.

Not only is having volumes of pages within the local papers and press important for Real Estate Agents to have as a listing tool of course having their Boards up is too! Real Estate Agents pride themselves on the number of boards they have visible in their local area.

Again home sellers are influenced by this. The more boards they see in their surrounding areas with the colours of the branding the real estate agents are represented by the perception is, the better they are.

Remember however, there is more than one Real Estate Agent working in each firm. You may have one Real Estate Agent with five selling agents each having four listings thus totaling 20 Boards. Whereas you may have another competitive Real Estate Agent in the local area with three selling agents two of which have three properties each and the other being the standout with ten.

Don’t always be deceived or influenced by the larger Real Estate Agent firms who have built their brand on being great sellers of advertising. In other words their volumes of advertising and boards and therefore branding pass on a perception of strength and assist them to secure listings.

It also boils down to the selling agents working within the firms themselves which is why some get more listings than others. Remember, it’s the agent selling your home not the brand of which he &/or she works for.

So digesting all of the above how do you find the best real estate agent in your local area? Unfortunately there is no simple answer – it takes years of research.

And that’s where Vendor Marketing can assist you. We are the most qualified vendor advocates in Melbourne as we specialise in BOTH property marketing and real estate agent selection. We know property marketing and the best real estate agent’s intimately – more so than any other vendor advocate.

Therefore we save our clients stress and time by calling in only the best real estate agents to appraise and pitch for our client’s property to start with. We also save our clients’ money by analysing the proposals put forward and trimming the unnecessary fat out of the schedules real estate agents push for plus we uncover the hidden value added options on offer which can add up to thousands and thousands of dollars.

In addition to this we also create two detailed social marketing campaigns for our client’s property to support the above the line advertising. And from this, if you are armed with the right marketing plan/strategy and we find an agent that’s the best for you & your particular property – that’s how maximum prices and outcomes are achieved and that’s what we strive for!

Vendor Marketing – Melbourne’s most qualified vendor advocates, specialises in both property marketing and agent selection for property sellers within Melbourne, therefore we are most qualified to find the best real estate agent that’s right for you and your property.