Selling Your Luxury Home With the Right Agent

Luxury Home Sellers Use Experts

We are continuing with our very useful series of articles on the factors that are delaying the sale of your luxury home and the steps you can take to speed up the sale process. If you have been finding it difficult to sell your home on the market for a long time the tips and advice that we are doling out here if implement can bring about that sale you have been dreaming about for a long time now! In our first article in the series we dealt with why your property is not selling on the market. Read the article here. Today we will talk about how to select the right real estate consultant to sell your property.

It is a fact that many sellers do not think it necessary to tie up with a real estate consultant when they want to sell their homes. There are many reasons for this chief among them being the real estate commission fees that they would have to pay to a real estate agent for their services. But most home owners who own high ticket properties and who have managed to quickly sell their properties in the market have all employed the services of a reputed and trustworthy real estate broker when selling their home. Let us see why.

You are Dealing with an Expert

Successful people are used to dealing with experts all their lives and in all aspects of their lives. Whatever be the case whether it is medical, legal or tax-related needs they always seek and expect the best guidance from the best experts money can buy. Most times, this is a point of honour for them to have consulted an expert for their services.

On the other side of the spectrum, are many people who view real estate agents as toll extractors on the path to selling their property! To such sellers, the real estate agent takes a cut from the top but he / she feels that the agent does not any any value to the selling process.

Let me inform you that if you are in the second category then even if you do contact a real estate agent in the future, you will be doing so for all the wrong reasons. You might end up hiring agents who talk big and promise to bring you a buyer who will pay you more than market rate. Or you might end up hiring a local neighbourhood agent or a relative who does real estate on the side.

In contrast, sellers who own multi-million dollar luxury homes have the opposite viewpoint. They know that the right property consultant who has the requisite knowledge and experience selling these kind of high value properties will bring value to the table and help them find the right buyer who is willing to pay the right amount for a luxury property. These people hold high regard for the role of an informed real estate consultant in the sale process and view them a must-have advisor on their side. They view the agent in an important light as important as the other professionals they have in their life as advisors.

For example such people love to know that the doctor they consult also treats the Indian cricket team or that their lawyer is the one who advises famous celebrities. Similarly they are more than happy to consult with and accept advice from the most well-known luxury property dealers in their city. In Mumbai the title of most renowned luxury property dealers belongs to us 🙂

Selecting the Right Property Consultant

If you are already convinced that you need the right property consultant then the question is: How do they know the consultants and agencies who are the most accomplished in their fields?

Well all I can say is look around. Search for “Gupta and Sen” on Google and go through our website and read reviews about us and watch our property videos on our YouTube Channel. Still not convinced that we are the right partners to sell your property. No problem! We believe there are other property consultants as good or even better than us in this field. Ask for recommendations from friends and business associates. Do make sure to conduct online and local search to complement the recommendations that you receive from your sources. Finally after you zone in on two to three real estate consultants who you feel are the right fit for you, go ahead and conduct a thorough telephonic or in-person interview and meeting with the consultant.

Let me take you through a recent experience that I have had with an NRI family who were selling their multi-million dollar family home in Bandra through long distance from Australia. The family was determined to choose the best real estate consultant for the task and set up an organized and systematic process of preliminary phone interviews. The decision maker of the family began by calling real estate consultants in Mumbai at random while the rest of the family listened on speaker phone. On calling each broker, the client requested to speak to the main person in charge of listing homes and asked, “Who would be the best person in your agency to market our sea facing property?” The client then made a list of all the qualifications of the agent and also the ticket prices of the past few properties he / she had sold. Some agencies acted pricey and began cross-questioning the client instead! Some were too busy to talk to him and didn’t take the call. Some were just plain rude. After calling most of the prominent agencies in town, the family shortlisted three agents for the job. Then the spokesman of the family invited each of the agencies to sit in front of the family members, make a presentation about their marketing plan and also answer questions. Gupta & Sen was one of the three agencies and we were hired by the client.

After the listing process was completed, I spoke to the client and just out of curiosity I asked how the family decided on this process for selecting a real estate consultant. The client gave me some very illuminating insights. He told me that his father had started the family business very modestly and built it into a highly successful company. His father had drilled the knowledge into his children that the foundation of his success was the ability to interview and choose talented people for critical roles at the firm. In turn the family members believed that when it came to selling the property that their deceased father had left them they should also stick to their father’s time-honoured principles and tradition and use that strategy to find the right real estate consultant to sell the property.

Let me also inform you that many home sellers who taste success in selling their pricey properties also follow a similar process even without the family history described above.

Owning the Process

What we are describing in this article also applies to home owners who are trying to sell homes of lesser price as opposed to the astronomical figures that say a sea facing luxury home would sell for. The principles here apply to small as well as large homes with varying ticket sizes. All you have to do is to absorb the knowledge and understand the process.

Let us say that you have already understood the importance of getting in touch with the right real estate agent for the job. You have decided that you will need to see this person as an important team member who will help you to successfully sell your property. But do not be in a hurry to choose the first agent you come across or select the agent who lives down the street from your house! Before buying an expensive painting or choosing a luxury item wouldn’t you research the market and get opinions and estimates from different retailers or dealers? So why wouldn’t you employ the same process when it comes to selling your multi-crore property?!

First of all ensure that you make the time and effort to speak with atleast two or three agents until decide on the right agent with whom you feel comfortable. Maybe you like someone who is pushy and opinionated. On the other hand maybe you like someone who is mild-mannered and acts as a counselor and sounding board to you. The right fit may lie somewhere in the middle. What is important is to pick the person who is right for you.

Remember

During the selling process, your property will be shown to many people. During the entire period of sale, you will be spending a lot of time with the agent. So do make sure that you and the agent selling your property are on the same wavelength and that the agent is interested in listening to your concerns.

Use the questions below as pointers to ask agents before selecting the right agent for selling your property:

How long have you been in business?

While the years of experience in the business is no guarantee of success you do want to make sure that the agent has atleast 5 years of experience in selling your kind of property. Experienced agents know the market well and can make the difference between a quick sale and not finding buyers for years.

Can I have a look at your website?

When you are engaging a Real estate consultant to work on selling your home it is like using the services of a professional. Now which true blue professional in today’s world (whether it is a single person or a company) will not have their own website?! If the agent does not have the resources or the ability to market his own services to the world and present a professional image of himself or his company, how do you expect him to market and sell your own property!

How much time do you spend visiting new listings in the market?

You should be confident that your agent has a thorough knowledge of the real estate market in your area. He should be aware of key new constructions and developments in your area and also know the luxury homes that have recently been sold apart from the ones that are for sale currently.

What kind of staff do you have?

Will I be dealing with your colleagues or with you? You should know the name and number of the agent’s colleague who will be handling your sale. Only a single agent should be in charge of selling your property and that agent should spend the maximum amount of time showing your property to prospective buyers. Which brings us to my next question.

Who will be actually showing my home to buyers that you bring?

Some agencies are excellent at making presentations to home sellers. But then these agents are never seen again because eventually an inexperienced junior gofer will be showing your property to clients! I have spoken to many property sellers who signed with us because they were not happy with the caliber of the person showing their homes in spite of signing up with some reputed international property consultants.

How are you different from other agents in your area?

Real Estate Agents offer services on different levels. You should be asking your agent what makes him or his agency different from the others. What can he / she offer that the other agencies cannot?

Can I have a copy of your listing contract?

When the agent sends you a contract, you should check the duration of the listing agreement in terms of how many months does the agent need in order to sell your home and whether the contract is exclusive or non-exclusive meaning that you can list with only your agent or whether you can list with multiple agencies. Also check to see whether there are any obligations when the contract expires or is cancelled by either party.

Can I have a copy of your marketing plan?

You want to work with a real estate agent who has a concrete marketing plan for selling your property and will be able to customize the plan according to the unique needs of the client and the property. The plan must include details about both traditional marketing as well as online marketing. It should also include details about how the agent markets your property to other real estate agents in the area. Why? Let me explain. More than 50% of home sales whether it is a resale home or a new home involve more than one real estate agent or company. Ask whether your real estate agency has a good network of agents and brokers (commonly known as channel partners). Also ask how your agent intends to publicise your property to other brokers and buyers through social media channels such as YouTube and Instagram.

One Last Point

Let me share another experience that led me to believe that this last point is a very important point to consider during the sale process of a luxury home. Back in the US where I used to work as a real estate agent many years ago, I happened to work for some time with a seller of high end properties. She was in her sixties and had beautiful blue eyes and always wore clothes that matched the colour of her eyes! She and her husband had purchased and sold many luxury homes across the country. As I finished my presentation with her, she said, “Chloe you have done a great job with the presentation. But now I would like you to come with me to the front door and show me my home as if I was the buyer!” That statement stuck with me.

Why not use the same idea when you are selling your own home?! Ask your agent to show you your own home as if you were the buyer! If you have a large home you need not get your agent to walk you through the entire house. Just 2 or 3 rooms should be enough for you to get a feel of how your home will be represented to future buyers. This is also a great way to check if your agent has been listening to your points about your property during the initial conversations.

Hope we have shed enough light on partnering with the right agent to sell your property. Hire the wrong agent and your property could be unable to find the right buyer for years. Team up with the right consultant and before you know it you could sell your property! Know more about our own home selling process here – Sell Your Property

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Chloe Dodd

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.