Property Brokers in Mumbai

If you want to sell your home then Gupta & Sen Associates is the right partner for you in order to meet your expectations. Read this article to get more insight about how we treat our sellers! Meeting sellers who want to list their homes and properties for us to sell is always an important moment. We like to help people and gain their trust in order for us to steer their expensive asset to a successful sale.

A Professional Prelisting Dossier

A three-part, two-appointment listing process is always a good idea. The prelisting dossier or folder is the basis and the bed of a productive listing appointment and serves 2 purposes.

a. It makes you accountable

b. helps to outline the entire process

The prelisting dossier summarizes our firm’s strengths, talents and successes to the client. It is basically a high quality folder with a photo of our assigned agent and a small brief of our firm. It will also include the agent’s resume, marketing materials like flyers or brochures as well as bullet points describing our expertise, experience and our successes.

The First Meeting

At our first appointment with a client who wants us to list his / her property, our sole objective is to make our potential clients feel comfortable – as if they already know us before the meeting. I always use a first meeting as a session for info-gathering. Understanding the potential seller’s views are highly important which is why it is important to write down all the important points that the seller has in mind about his / her property. The property seller’s words are highly important to us. Since many of the homes that we list are very large and detailed, I will usually walk the property with the seller first for a quick outline. Once that is done, I usually go through the house again but this time more slowly and carefully all the while taking detailed notes and sometimes even room-by-room measurements. Well I for one know that a lot of other agents do not do this. I am also aware of the fact that when I am present for future meetings with the seller, the seller will remember my diligent and caring attitude in our first appointment. Usually before our first meeting with sellers, we get the plans, deeds etc. from the seller apart from anything else that might affect the value and marketability of the property. The first appointment with the buyer is also a good time to discuss the terms of our agency.

As with properties of any price range, ascertaining the motivation of the seller is very important. The seller of a home actually does not always have to sell out of desperation, but a lot of times the desire to sell can be good enough to impart a high degree of motivation to the seller. Sometimes the sellers ask our opinions and impressions of what the asking price should be. At this point of time, it is not the right idea to give away my thoughts regarding the price point. Usually the price point is provided once all facts and details are in place and after verifying with the market data. Sellers are usually happy enough to respect it.

The Top Questions We Ask Sellers During a Listing Meeting:

  1. Have you had this home on the market before?
  2. What are the criterias that you use to hire a real estate agent?
  3. Tell us about your previous experiences with an estate agent when selling property. Anything that that agent could have done to improve his / her service. What did you like the best about the service that you received?

Finding out what the Sellers have in mind in terms of property pricing is crucial. Often the seller’s suggested price for the property could have been arrived at after hearing about recent sales in his area. This should also be kept in mind when understanding why the seller has arrived at the particular price point. Most times though, the seller will rarely disclose his / her feelings regarding the price that he / she wants. Most times I usually get a flat answer, “We haven’t done any research and really have no idea about what is going on in the market. Which is why we called you! We want your expert advice!”

The Second Meeting

Once I have had the opportunity to have a look at the property, review my notes and check with all the market data, I can proceed to present the comparitive market analysis that I have created after the first meeting was over. The presentation is usually prepared in a PPT format where over the course of about a dozen slides, I emphasize the four or five USP’s that I and my firm can provide to the buyer. The buyer is also asked to assign a value to each of these differentiators. The main differentiator on why a seller will list his property with us rather than someone else with all other things being equal always boils down to how much more percentage we can help sell his property for. It could be ten percent more than the market rate or five percent more for his property than any other agent or company. It is important for the seller to understand clearly the percentage differentiator that we bring to the table because after that, commission discussions become easier to deal with. A 5 % higher selling price for a seller will reduce any likelihood of him asking for a reduction in our commission percentage. A good idea that has worked for me is to show the client’s own property to the client as I would show to a potential buyer. When the seller hears you speaking about the same points that the seller himself wanted you to showcase, the seller knows how attentive you are and results in more trust.

For luxury and high end listings, we usually contract for a minimum period of six months and many a times also make the contract valid for 12 months. Cycles for selling properties even during up cycles can be time-intensive because the pool of potential buyers for luxury and high end properties is not very large. We also guarantee our work. If at any point of time, the seller is unhappy with our services, we cancel the contract with no cost or obligation to the seller.

Failing to meet the expectations of clients can cost high end real estate agents. For us at Gupta & Sen, we believe that it is very important for us to inform sellers of what their expectations should be.

Here’s how we explain the process:

1. We Say What Will Happen

2. We Say Who Will Make it Happen

3. We Say When It Will Happen

We thus alert the seller to the possibility of a fast sale and also the possibility of a long drawn-out time of more than 12 months on the market – whatever we believe is the likely outcome for the said property. We also explain the number of showings that are likely to take place during a given period of time. A lot of factors come into play including the time of the year. For example property showings for high end property peaks during the last week of December when a lot of NRI’s are in India visiting parents or on vacation and like to mix up business with pleasure.

At Gupta & Sen, we believe professional and an educated approach built on processes and standards goes a long way. We believe that it is very important to give our sellers regular written reports to keep them updated on the progress. High end property sellers and buyers are used to receiving them in other areas of their lives and are not terribly impressed if we miss that. As with all other things in life, you give respect to the other person’s intelligence to earn respect!

Real Estate Agent at Gupta & Sen
Chloe is a real estate advisor with Gupta & Sen. With a combined experience of over 15 years in varied industries, she is a vocal and knowledgeable ally for buyers and investors who want to make informed choices when buying a property in India. With superlative communication and marketing skills, Chloe handles our PR, real estate marketing strategy and client management.
Chloe Dodd