How to speak as a realtor to apartment owners, communicate correctly with clients to reduce the number of refusals of services and the number of disrupted business meetings and transactions.
Successful agents who support the execution of more than 3 transactions per month receive several hundred thousand rubles per month, but the commission comes from professionally established communication with owners, buyers, even their relatives and sometimes people who are not involved in the process of buying and selling real estate.
Such skills have been honed over the years, but every newbie realtor began his journey somewhere, and today we will learn how a specialist should talk to sellers and buyers to successfully solve their problems.
What questions to ask to identify the needs of an apartment buyer
Stages of negotiations with a client
The work of a realtor is based on the ability to come to an agreement - with a client, counterparty, or bank. His income depends on this. Let's focus on the algorithm for negotiating between a realtor and a client :
- First telephone conversation
- Meeting at the client’s office or site (if he sells/rents it)
- Meetings at property showings
- Discussion with the client of the nuances of the transaction
- Paperwork
Negotiation techniques help you move through these stages faster and easier. What does it consist of? We have collected advice from experienced realtors and identified 7 rules for communicating with clients.
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How to choose a realtor
Choosing the right realtor or real estate agency is one of the most important steps in preparing to buy or sell a home. A good agent will help you save nerves and money, guide you through the purchasing process and protect you from deception. There is no magic formula for choosing a great agent, although there are steps you can take that will increase your chances of success. We'll tell you how to choose a suitable realtor and what to look for when choosing.
How to choose the right realtor: 5 tips for searching
In Russia, the work of realtors has not been licensed since 2002, and there is no law to regulate their activities. This significantly complicates the selection of an agent: few people know how to evaluate his professionalism. There are a number of questions, the answers to which will help you choose the right realtor.
Choose a realtor from a real estate agency
In a successful agency that has been on the market for a long time, it is easier to choose a reliable realtor. But this does not mean that private realtors or employees of small agencies are “bad”.
It’s just that, as a rule, a large and experienced agency protects its reputation, works only with professionals and takes care of their qualifications, sending them to courses and seminars. Also, in such a company you are guaranteed not to meet scammers, which cannot be said about fly-by-night agencies.
True, there are also disadvantages. They have many clients, so the work resembles an assembly line. You may be referred from one specialist to another and each will have to re-explain their requirements.
There are also professionals among private realtors and employees of small agencies. In addition, they devote more effort and time to clients, since they are just building a reputation and rely on your recommendations. There is a greater chance of meeting a scammer here, so it is better to choose private specialists based on recommendations from loved ones.
Find out what area the realtor specializes in
A good specialist works in 1-2 areas. If your candidate says that he is involved in the rental of housing and offices, transactions with secondary housing and new buildings, the purchase of land plots and houses in the private sector, he cannot be called a specialist.
If you choose a realtor in a large city, then he should specialize not only in the type of real estate, but also in a particular area or block. Choose a realtor who works in the area of the city you like.
A good way to gauge local market knowledge is to simply ask. Ask about the average time to sell apartments in recently completed buildings in the area and the average prices for apartments, also ask about the differences between apartments and the nuances of the local market that you should be aware of. It is difficult to have such information on a citywide scale, which is why the quality of services provided by generalist realtors is lower.
Study the specialist’s experience and reviews from his clients
Find out how many deals your realtor has successfully concluded. If he has hundreds of lucrative deals behind him and a lot of work experience, you can believe that he can handle it for five and choose him. Pay attention to the little things: does he have a blog, does he promote his business through social networks, does he talk about his achievements there.
The success of a realtor can also be evidenced by the number of advertisements placed on his behalf. Professionals always have a lot of objects.
Study customer reviews, they can help you figure out what they were trying to hide from you. But rely only on independent resources. It is useless to study good reviews on the agent’s website or on his Instagram.
But even many years of experience and good reviews do not guarantee the quality of an agent’s services if they are outdated. The market situation is constantly changing, forcing realtors to be flexible and always stay abreast of current changes. Laws, government regulations, promotion methods, etc. change.
If a realtor has 20 years of experience, you shouldn’t rely on that alone. Check his qualifications: find out about his home sales marketing plan, recent training completed, channels used and technologies used.
Find out if the realtor has a plan
Ask how the realtor plans to work with your property. He should explain to you what actions he is going to perform and in what time frame, what tools he will use. The use of posting advertisements for sale on Avito, Tsian and local newspapers cannot be called effective. You can do this yourself.
A good realtor's plan contains at least 25 different promotion tools. The following should be indicated there:
- Methods for selecting target buyers or sellers;
- Platforms for posting advertisements;
- Frequency of their updating;
- Processing of received responses.
To create a plan, a realtor must study your wishes for purchase or the property for sale. Find out the area, site, block in which the housing is located. If you have chosen a realtor for this territory, then even in a dream he should tell you how many two-room studios are currently for sale in this area.
Make sure you are not entering into an agreement with a scammer
To avoid choosing a scammer, you should pay attention to a number of signs:
- The agent does not indicate the terms and conditions for the sale of the apartment in the contract. This may indicate that he is looking for a quick profit: the realtor sells the apartment at a price slightly below the market price or, conversely, delays the process for a long time, expecting a higher price for the buyer.
- The realtor promises a discount on the commission for his services. This may mean that he works with you in secret from the agency, saving on commission to the employer. In this case, you will actually save money, but will lose a number of agency services. Such as company liability insurance or after-sales service.
- The realtor's remuneration is below the market average. Either newcomers or scammers are interested in dumping. We talked about prices for realtor services in the article.
- The realtor extracts money in excess of the commission, under the guise of bypassing queues at the registration office, paying extra to government agencies for accepting documents, speeding up the process, etc. This can indeed happen, but you will not be able to check where the money went. Agree in advance that all unplanned expenses come from the commission.
Now you know how to choose a realtor when selling or buying. Don't forget to check his reputation, qualifications and specialization.
Text: Elizaveta Kobrina
Help from professionals
There is a category of people who, due to their work, constantly have information about who is getting married, who needs new housing due to the birth of a child, who has moved to the city and needs a permanent home.
Such “useful contacts” can be used profitably in the work of a real estate agent. Who will always replenish the client base with new and up-to-date information?
- Employees of housing offices, management companies, and various utility companies often communicate with residents of apartment buildings. And they may know about upcoming plans to purchase an apartment. If you leave them agent business cards or simply maintain constant contact with them, you can receive the latest and most verified data.
- It is not surprising that those who participate in organizing and holding family celebrations may also have the necessary information. For example, the host at a wedding may hear that a young couple will be looking for a house or apartment for themselves.
- But funeral agency workers will tell you about the possible sale of a home at a particular address. They serve bereaved families and may have important information.
Such information that “informants” will provide will significantly help increase the number of clients. And it wouldn’t hurt to be grateful for your help.
Work on sites
A good realtor will not sit in the agency all the time, waiting for a lucky break. Now there are enough ways to contact any real estate office, any of its employees. There are telephones, email, social networks, website services.
To recruit clients, you need to work in the city, study supply and demand, specific apartments for sale. And it’s worth conducting your search for service customers with the help of residents of various microdistricts.
Near every house you can find elderly people relaxing on a bench, young mothers walking with their children. You can contact them, introduce yourself, tell them about your work and ask for help and advice. Perhaps they will talk about apartments for sale or simply take business cards to distribute to friends.
IMPORTANT! It is necessary for strangers to trust the realtor, so you should have an identification card with you.
Sample contracts with a real estate agency for the provision of services
Depending on the subject of the contract, the contract with the customer will differ in content, duties and responsibilities of the parties.
- Agency agreement (sample).
- Agency agreement (sample).
- Agreement on the provision of real estate services (sample).
- Agreement for the provision of legal services (sample).
What could go wrong
When coming to a viewing, you need to be prepared for different developments. So, the owner may refuse to show documents or will not allow you to take photographs or videotape. A separate discussion is the condition of the housing, it can unpleasantly surprise and shock. In addition, the apartment may have hidden shortcomings, and the package of documents will have to be finalized for more than one day. All this needs to be understood so as not to fall into a stupor.
Features of the real estate purchase and sale transaction
Participants in a real estate purchase and sale transaction must be aware of possible risks, understand the degree of responsibility, and be able to find a solution where possible or refuse the transaction:
- The purchase and sale agreement is drawn up in simple written form, indicating the parties and the essential terms of the transaction.
- The procedure and method of transferring funds, as an advance payment and full payment for the object, are reflected in the contract.
- When selling an apartment purchased during marriage, the consent of the second spouse for the sale will be required (Article 36 of the RF IC).
- The agreement can be notarized at the request of the parties.
- When selling a share or involving minors or incapacitated citizens in the transaction, notarization is mandatory.
- If one of the owners is a minor, permission from the guardianship authority must be obtained to carry out the transaction.
- If maternity capital is used to purchase an apartment or pay off a mortgage, shares in ownership must be allocated. You can find out whether maternity capital was used when purchasing the apartment for sale from the sales contract, which will indicate how, and with what funds, the apartment was purchased. You can request a certificate from the seller about the balance of funds on the certificate.
- Check the registered persons, whether there are temporarily absent ones, for what reasons and who they belong to the owner. This data is presented in an extract from the house register.
- The apartment may be pledged to the bank under a mortgage, or a ban on registration actions has been imposed on the apartment for other reasons. This information is contained in Section 2 of the extract from the Unified State Register.
Each case is individual. Only a competent specialist will be able to take into account all the nuances and conduct the transaction correctly without risk to the parties.
