How do you talk to real estate agents both during the inspection as well as after the inspection. What should and shouldn’t you say and how should you approach the agents?
Hey guys, Ryan here from on-property, just been on the road with add as well as Simon and crystal in the front. They’re inspecting a bunch of properties today and wants to do a quick video on our way home, talking about how to talk to real estate agents both during the inspection as well as after the inspection as well.
Yeah. Good. Hey guys. Adam here, as Ryan said. Um, so the, the main thing to keep in mind, and me and Ryan were just having a chat about this and he touched on it. It’s real estate agents or real people like you and me. Super Nice and the same assignments. Everything that they prefer not to be lied to. They prefer to be told the truth and to be honest, just transparency. So to rewind a little bit there, when you’re in your inspections and you’re having a chat to your agent and they might ask you a few questions, tell them the truth, like there’s no benefit from lying or trying to make your story sound bad. It’d be as honest as possible. Let them know your situation, but um, know exactly what you’re looking for because they’re out there to help you. Like even though they’re working for the owner or the vendor selling the property, they get paid off making the deal happen and so they want that just as much as you do. Um, so that’s, that’s a little bit of my advice.
Well that’s the thing. They want to get a deal across shore. They want to get the best price for the customer, for the person selling the property, but they want to put a deal together. They want to sell you this property if it’s the right property for you. And I feel like a big thing that’s going to help you when talking to the agent is doing a due diligence on the suburb before you go into it. And so knowing what the property you’re looking at is actually worth by looking at previous properties that have sold in the area. So you’re not just going in knowing nothing. So you’ve got some things that you can talk about with the agent about the area, you know, where the local train stations are, where the local schools are, all of this sort of stuff. You don’t want to go in blind to an area and just rely on everything that agent tells you, know a lot. Then you can back and forth with the agent and talk about the area, talk about the good and the bad, and you get that professional respect from them when they can tell that you know what you’re talking about.
Yeah, exactly. And I was just going to jump in and say good inflammation leads to good question. So when you’ve done your research and you know a little bit more, instead of going in there and asking them, where’s the school? When you can jump on Google maps and find that out in one second, you can ask them a little bit, something bit more meaningful perhaps why the vendors are selling, what’s their motivation are you talk about price a little bit, what else they’re selling in the area. Trying to ask about those questions which can go a little bit deeper than what things you might be able to just research and find out yourself quite easily.
Yeah, and I think doing the inspection first, which is something that we’ll talk to you about today. You do the inspection first and then ask the questions at the end, during the inspection, first gives the agent the chance to show you around the place and to highlight things and also gives you time to build that rapport with the agent. Whereas if you shake their hand at the front door and you say, why is the owner selling this property? It’s Kinda. It’s very abrupt and they’re going to have that guard up, but as you inspect the property, as you make small talk with them, as you build that rapport and that sort of friendship there, then it’s just like it’s a natural occurrence that comes at the end where you’re saying, okay, well why is that owner selling the property? What sort of price are they expecting? What are the things that you’re selling in the area are? Because if you’re looking to invest, if this property is imperfect for you, they might have something else that suits as well as letting them know that you’re serious.
Exactly, and a couple of other things that can help you in that situation is go ahead and get your preapproval before he starts looking like we talked, I talked about with every agent that I almost say on every property how frustrating it is. People not moving forward and getting their preapproval or thinking that close to finance or they’re only one step away when they in fact might be a few weeks away and might not even be possible to buy that property. So get those little things sorted first. So when you go there, you can perhaps show them that preapproval, they know you’re serious, they’re going to respect you a little bit more and take you that bit more serious.
Yeah, and I think it is important to understand that real estate agents work on commission, so their only going to all the work they do is for free unless they sell the property, so they’re going to get paid when they sell the property. So they’re not gonna want to spend a lot of time with people who are just kicking the tires around who don’t have that preapproval who aren’t seriously looking or if you aren’t seriously looking and you’re just dabbling, then again, that transparency with them to say this is where I’m at and to be respectful of them and their time so you’re not wasting a lot of their time pretending that you’re a serious buyer when you’re actually not. Because something that we noticed today and you would notice because you go around so much is there’s not that many agents out there. So if you’re looking at a particular suburb or particular area, you don’t want to burn bridges with the top performing agent in that area because you’re going to see them a lot.
Definitely. And they’re all kind of linkedin a little bit too all day. They’re not, they’re not friends, they’re not working together. They do talk as well. And you know, you don’t want to be that person that showed up to 100 inspections and not put in one office. So yeah, take it a little bit more serious and make sure you respect their time. Um, another thing when you’re communicating with agents as well, just I guess to wrap it up, we’ll talk a little bit about after that inspection is make sure you’re getting contact them with and provide them with accurate feedback or like just the truth to be honest. So let them know why you didn’t like the property or why you’re not proceeding. Even if it’s something that’s a little bit embarrassing, I’d prefer to know the truth and then an embarrassing giving us something that’s embarrassing. I don’t know. People just seem to get embarrassed about their financial position a lot. So if you have to tell someone, look or an agent, I can’t afford to spend what this property is going to be thought, it might be a bit cheaper. Just be honest about it because then when they get the next one that is similar and it is a bit cheaper, they will let you know about it because they want to sell it as well. So it leads to that healthy relationship moving forward.
Yeah. And so also it’s getting back to the agent because again, you are looking to build this relationship and maybe short term because you may just be buying something, but if you’re not finding the property, he could be dealing with the same person for months on end. And so after the property, getting back with them with that honest feedback, look, I liked the property, but I’m not going to move forward for x, y, z. maybe the property didn’t suit your needs. Maybe it doesn’t have granny flat potential. Maybe you can’t afford to purchase that property. But to give the agent feedback and say, I didn’t like this about it. I’m looking for something. Whatever it is that you’re looking for. Then they know not to waste their time on you anymore. Then I’m gonna call you and keep hassling you and they also know that you’re someone that’s going to be honest and easy to deal with. That if they show your property, they know you’re a serious buyer and then if you’re not going to actually go ahead and purchase it, you’re going to let them know. And so you’re not a drawer on their resource.
Yeah, and they’re not sitting there wondering. It’s not like churning in the back of the mind, is there an offer coming in and they still did it dealing with their preapproval. They told me about a week ago, should I follow them up? Am I being annoying? Like it’s just a whole bunch of questions that kind of pop up in the agent’s mind about whether or not they should contact you when realistically you want them calling you as soon as they think they’ve got a reason to call you.
Yeah. You want them to call you with properties that you actually want. And so letting them know what you don’t want and why you don’t want it can be really helpful.
Yeah, exactly. And just to just, I guess to wrap it up, I’m just remember in those hot suburbs, time on market is extremely short. So once you have taken to account a 30 day settlement or longer, it’s actually a large proportion of properties in hot suburbs are selling. Premarket are off market. So building those relationships can also lead to those agents. Letting you know about that property maybe a little bit sooner or giving you that heads up.
Yep, and just remember agents are people too. They’re generally really, really friendly. Everyone that we met with today was really nice and really friendly. There are there to get the deal done. They’re there to help you buy a property as well as obviously sell the property, so just treat them like humans. Be Transparent, be respectful and go out there and do it. You’ve got nothing to be afraid of.
I hope you enjoyed these tips that came out of the day that I did on the road with the buyer’s agency team from pumped on property. I hope that this will help you in your interaction with real estate agents so that you can feel more confident as you go out and you inspect properties. Really? Yeah. The biggest thing that I noticed on this day on the road was just when you know your staff, it’s so easy to talk to real estate agents and have that professional relationship and that professional respect for each other. When you’re both trying to accomplish the same thing, they’re trying to get a deal done, you’re trying to get a deal done, potentially you’d be like the property, then you can just work together as professionals and negotiate to purchase that property. That’s what you want, or if you don’t give him the feedback as to why you don’t like that property, so hopefully you can make a deal with them in the future. If you want to learn more about negotiating with real estate agents, then go ahead and check out this video that I did with Ben Everingham on negotiating in quiet markets versus busy markets. Go to on-property dot com dot EU for massage for 15 to see that episode. I’ll leave the links in the description down below. Thanks so much for watching. Don’t forget to subscribe and until next time, stay positive.