Case Study - How do you decide on which real estate agent will sell your house.
When getting quotes first from real estate agents, the customer was able to save significant time, compare like for like quotes, negotiate and save $14,000 in commission fees.
In this study we will look at one customer's journey on how they evaluated and then selected their preferred real estate agent to sell their house. We evaluate 2 process scenarios. We review the efficiencies of both and opportunity to make informed decisions when comparing real estate proposals and marketing materials.
When making that decision to commit to selling your house, often the first step the home owner will take will be to contact a real estate agent.
How do you evaluate one agent from the other?
How do you know you're getting the best deal?
Which real estate gents should you call?
(More importantly) How do you know if the agent is going to get you the best sale's price.
Synopsis: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the process of selecting a real estate agent when thinking about or wanting to, sell your house We take a look at one customers journey (referred to as Customer A) and review their selection process.
Scenario 1 - Make contact with 3 real estate agent's (by phone). This process lead to individual meetings taking place after working hours over a 7 day period.
Issues:
Inconvenience - 3 meetings roughly took between 3 - 4.5hrs, held after work. Although "Customer A" was unable to meet during the day, due to work commitments, afterwork meeting invaded family time - preparing dinner, preparing school lunches, helping children with homework.
Process of Evaluation - At the conclusion of each meeting, "Customer A" was handed a marketing collateral kit containing numerous flyers - agent bio's, recent sales and brochure display samples.
Similar presentation - Each agent's intention was to build a relationship with "Customer A". The questions being asked were similar in nature as was the selling proposition - history of sales success, expected house value/price, local industry knowledge.
Findings:
Once the final meeting was concluded (day 7) "Customer A" was unable to differentiate each agent apart from commission fee and marketing budget cost.
Due to the timing from the first to the last meeting, "Customer A" was unable to recall the unique proposition of the first real estate agent presentation.
Cost was the only differentiator - Marketing and Commission fee.
Each agent presented their customer testimonials that centred on recommending the agent or using the agent again for future sale opportunities
Scenario 2 - Use a 3rd party aggregator to source quotes from real estate agents, to assist the Vendor in shortlisting, selecting or continue negotiations.
Findings:
Within 48hrs of requesting quotes, Commingle presented 5 real estate agent quotes in a 1 page format presented (side by side) to support an easy to review evaluation.
Commingle is able to create a quote template unique to the vendor's selection criteria e.g.: Provide an example of how you have delivered exceptional service to a client. How would you choose to market my house different from other listings. Give me an example of sale where you weren't able to get the sale price, what did you learn from this experience and what would you do differently etc.
The Commingle service spends time with each Vendor to determine what criteria is important to collect as part of their evaluation process. thus creating a unique quotation review service.
Commingle does not provide real estate agents with the Customers contact details. these details remain confidential, until such time the customer makes their decision. details regarding the house profile, location (not address) are provided to the agents to support the completion of their quotes.
Using Commingle removed the time to:
Source and contact real estate agents directly.
Hold individual meetings with numerous real estate agents at inconvenient times.
Gather information to support further negotiation with shortlisted agents
Comparing quotes in the same format, "Customer A" was able to evaluate all responses and select the most appropriate answer aligned to their selection criteria.
"Customer A" was able to chose their preferred agent within 1hr from receiving the quote response from Commingle. Therefore, reducing the evaluation process significantly in comparison to Scenario 1.
Upon selecting their preferred real estate agent, "Customer A" was in a better negotiation position. This lead to "Customer A" being able to negotiate the following:
a reduced commission fee with their preferred agent - the real estate agent reduce their commission fee by 0.05% to win the account and thus, providing Customer A in saving $14,000.
increased marketing strategy opportunities - Facebook page and Facebook ad campaign, a website created for the house, the creation of a twitter account and twitter adwords campaign.
Conclusion
In using the quote first strategy provided by Commingle, "Customer A" was able to save time, make a "like for like" comparison, negotiate a better deal and save money.
Getting quotes first is enabling the gathering of information in an efficient timeframe. By process of elimination, decisions are made in a non-confronting environment. Before purchasing, you need to do your research. It's no different in deciding which bank you will partner with or which car will be your next purchase. Wen deciding on real estate agents, what information do you need to gather to shortlist your selection, what information do you need to know to be able to differentiate one agent from the other. You may still choose to meet with your shortlist face to face, but the difference is, you can control the meeting and negotiate a better outcome.
