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Mistake : Choosing Agents who quoted the highest selling price for your flat
This is a very common mistake made by many HDB Flat owners. They thought that whichever agent quote me the highest price, gets the sole agency for the sale of their flat. They forgot that this highest selling price quote is by agents & NOT bids by buyers to buy the flat. The agent still need to market the flat & get the buyer to buy.
Unscrupulous & dishonest agents can knowingly quote the highest price to secure the sole agency & then wait for the market to rise to that higher level & sell the flat. Or they can come back to you after 6-8 weeks (after some half hearted attempts to sell your flat or sleep on it) & tell you that the market has changed & you can only get so much; which in any case may be the same or lower than the honest agents who had quoted you the right price in the first place. If the price is higher or the same, it is alright but if the price is lower then one cannot but felt short changed & cheated and felt letting down the honest agent who had earlier stated the right possible price.
Such unscrupulous & dishonest tactics are rather common & sellers better be aware of such tricks of the trades. It is better the seller work in partnership with agents who are honest & dedicated with a conscience. Agents with a heart in likelihood will not hide any offers & act for their own interest.
Mistake : Assuming an open listing is better than exclusive listing by agents
This is a another pretty common mistake made by many HDB Flat owners. They thought that I should let my flat be open listing such that whichever agent comes to me with the buyer who can give me highest price, gets my flat. They thought by making it open listing more agents will work on it & owners have more buyers to choose from. (Listings become open when owners advertise on the newspaper classified or online classified).
The actual reality is far from what the owner think it will be. Due to open listing nature of the property, Agent A will think Agent B will market, & Agent B will think Agent C will market, & Agent C thinks Agent D will market & so on. The end result is Nobody does the marketing & the property is left hanging like dry clothes. Agents being normally logical & streetwise tend to avoid doing open listings as they may lose the deal & waste all the efforts & costs into marketing the property. There is opportunity cost involved here. Agents can lose other deals if they chase open listings properties. Agents without such assurance do not like to waste their time, efforts & money (which can runs into a few hundreds to thousands of dollars) to market open listing properties. Why spend money & efforts marketing when the property can be closed by other agents any time?
Homeowners should switch position & put themselves in the shoes of the agents. Would the homeowners do the same thing of not waste time marketing open listing properties if they one day become agents themselves? For Hot Tip how to resolve this problem & not be tied to exclusive listing, visit Anderson Property Consultants .
Mistake : Assuming an Agent from a well known Company is better
Some homeowners thought that they should go for a well known brand name Real Estate Agency & assume that an Agent from a well known Company is better & more experienced. This is not exactly true all the time. The one selling the property is the individual Agent NOT the brand name Real Estate Agency. The individual Agent is the physical one selling the property.
Some Homeowners forgot about this point & came away with bad experience with that particular individual agent from well known Real Estate Agency. Well known Real Estate Agency are known better simply because they had spent much advertising their profile & services. Publishing & advertising widely everywhere & making themselves well known do not mean they are good.
Homeowners therefore should not simply assume that an agent from well known Real Estate Agency is better. (See below for another similar case).
Mistake : Assuming an Agent who charges Higher Commission is better
Some homeowners thought that Agent who charges higher commission for the sale of their properties is better. This is not true all the time. It could be the agent wants to earn more or it is due to company's regulations. Homeowners who are not alerted to this point & hold such presumption have only themselves to blame when they discover they are not getting their money worth for their services.
Mistake : Assuming an older looking Agent is more experienced
Some homeowners when choosing real estate agents to handle their property thought that older looking agents are more experienced & knows what to do. This is not exactly true. Older agents may be just retirees & are new in this field of work. Or they may just have joined this field from another.
Homeowners should not simply assume an older looking agent is more experienced than a younger looking agent. Unfortunately due to many years of conditioning, many homeowners commit this "perception" mistake & only realise it much later. It could be an expensive lesson if homeowners are not alerted to this fact.
Mistake : Assuming an Agent who drive Big Car is more experienced
Some homeowners when choosing real estate agents to handle their property thought that agents who drive Big Car are more successful & more experienced. It may be true at times, but it may not be true too. Agents may be just borrowing other people's cars or they are new agents who are able to afford a big car from their previous job before switching over. Or the agent could be doing another business & real estate work is just part time work.
It is amazingly true that Homeowners could fall for such "perception" tricks & learnt an expensive lesson. We sincerely hope homeowners do not simply judge people by the colour of the book or what they wear. Homeowners need to do some basic homework & be alerted to different possibilities & tricks which could affect them & their decisions.
Mistake : Creating confusion by giving a few agents exclusive listing
Some homeowners thought they can give exclusive sole agency listing of their property to a few agents & sign a few exclusive sole agency listing to a few agents. This is incorrect & improper. By the exclusive sole agency listing, this mean that only 1 agent can handle transaction of the property for a limited period of time. Homeowners can only sign 1 exclusive sole agency listing of their property at any 1 time. Homeowners may get into legal entanglements & incur more costs & commissions should they sign a few exclusive sole agency listing with a few agents.
Mistake : Signing Blank Sole Exclusive Listing Agency Agreement without Reading
Some of you may think this is a very silly mistake & will not happen on me. The unfortunate thing is that it does happen to our contributor, Lady XXX, who called us up to inform us of such a happening.
Lady XXX signed a blank sole agency agreement without reading & trusted fully one of the agents from this so called reputable high profile agency, DDD, who said that he will hand back signed blank sole agency after getting the necessary stamping from the company. This trusting Lady XXX, told the agent he will have up to 120 days for the sole agency period, but the returned signed copy of the sole agency came back stating 150 days.
Lady XXX was furious over such dishonesty & hence seek a way out to terminate the sole agency agreement. Unfortunately, as she did not read the sole agency properly, she thought that she can simply terminate this agreement by sending a letter of termination. (Such a letter of termination clause was not in the sole agency agreement as it will be an unfair exit clause for the owner to exit out & do private deals after much efforts, money and marketing by the agent.)
Lady XXX was also not happy that she has to pay commission even if she sells her flat by herself as she does not want the agent's services any more. She did not understand & read the agreement properly that she is bound to the agent for the stated period of time and hence should she sells her flat within that period she would still have to pay the agent the commission stated whether she sells directly or through another agent. (Such compensation clause is standard in most sole agency agreement)
She should have been more careful in her choice of agent thereby saving her this unhappy experience. She should also not just rely on the prominence of any agency and assume or equate prominence of agency with being reputable. She should have also read the sole agency agreement and understand fully the terms & conditions and consequences of the agreement.
Consideration before choosing a "many awards" Top Agent
Some homeowners when choosing real estate agents to handle their property thought that agents who advertise grandly in the newspaper classified that they are top agents, top award etc...., should be the one to handle the property.
Has it occur to the homeowners that if these Agents are so capable & have so many clients & referrals, why would they need to advertise & promote themselves so aggressively in the newspapers. Don't these top agents have many clients & referrals to handle? Would these busy Agents have time to market your property conscientiously? Would your property get the sufficient attention of so called Top Agents? Will your property be handled by the agents' assistants instead? Will your property be done quickly without regards to achieving the best possible price?
Homeowners should be consider the above questions carefully before considering to engage such so called top agents. It is only fair the homeowners be alerted to the above questions before making their decision to choose which agent to handle their property.
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