As an agent, it’s your job to understand pricing and deliver on that promise of expert advice for your clients. My Coaching Tip today is all about understanding property and pricing from the viewpoint of buyers and sellers, valuers and investors, and the rapidly changing balance of each individual marketplace.
Here’s a simple example: A property may be listed as beach access, beachside, beach view, or beach frontage. Each of those terms defines a different proximity of the property to the beach. In each case the location of the property in relation to the beach impacts the way that property’s pricing will be analyzed.
If you’re a valuer, the key things you’ll look at will be the replacement cost of a property based on current standards, the rate of return if an investor rents the property, and rates in sales based on surrounding properties. If you know how a valuer determines pricing you can begin to understand how a buyer works it out.
Buyers base their pricing methodology on recent sales in the area, often through curbside valuations. More importantly, they’re doing open for inspections and if you haven’t seen the properties your customers are looking at, you won’t know how to sell against them.
It’s also a challenge when the agent’s price guide doesn’t match what clients are seeing in the marketplace. People determine price points on their perception of value, and they can get very emotive over pricing. It’s critically important to maintain relationships with your buyers by helping them understand how the market’s really working.
Understanding property and pricing is crucial because you have to get the pricing right. You are facilitating a marketplace that’s constantly changing, so when you present a current offer today, you must also advise on what the next offer might be. The sooner a decision can be made, the sooner there can be a decision, and the earlier that happens, the better.
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next week.