What Do YOU Want From YOUR Agent?

What do consumers want from their real estate agent?
What services do good agents provide that are under-utilized by consumers?

In metro Denver, we don’t have to go far to find an expert on the subject.
Steve Murray, President of Real Trends, Inc., is a nationally renowned expert on the residential real estate business and he is headquartered right here in our own back yard, on the north edge of Castle Rock.

Murray commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct a survey of recent home buyers and sellers. The poll was done with a statistically valid sample of nationwide buyers and sellers in all demographic groups. These consumers were asked to rate the importance of various services that agents provide…

• • What’s the #1 thing home buyers and sellers want from an agent? Negotiation skills. Right at 82% of those polled, said the agent’s skill in negotiating the best price for them was “extremely important” or “very important”. No other skill was rated as more desirable.

• • #3 on the most important services list is very similar: Consumers want an agent with the ability to accurately estimate the fair market value of a property that is being bought or sold. This makes perfect sense given the importance of negotiation. After all, how can an agent negotiate a great price if the agent has no clue about the property’s value under current market conditions?

• • Other services, like the marketing plan for a seller’s home or providing online home search capability to buyers, ranked lower in importance by 20 points or more.

• • The service consumers find least valuable from an agent is interesting. Only 46% of buyers surveyed said the agent’s help in finding a lender was extremely or very important. In fact, 35% said it was of little or no importance at all.

Consumers are on the right track with their sentiments about needing agents with robust negotiating and pricing skills. Agents with these skills will easily add more value to your bottom line than the fee that he or she charge you.

On the other hand, buyers might want to rethink the value of the agent’s help in selecting a lender. There are tremendous advantages in using an agent’s preferred lender.

For starters, the lender has a proven track record with the agent in getting deals done quickly and reliably. The agent is not going to put up with a lender that consistently fails to meet contractual deadlines or repeatedly fails at to get loans approved.

In addition, there is greater accountability when using an agent’s recommended lender. A lender that is a stranger to you only loses one deal if he messes up your transaction. On the other hand, the lender you meet through your agent loses a steady stream of business if he performs poorly for you. This makes the lender more accountable to you and more responsive to your needs.