10 May WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A PROPERTY SALE?

A popular misconception, promoted by some Agents, is that the marketing and gimmicks allied to that are the main things. The truth however, is that provided the property is correctly priced and well presented, a buyer will ALWAYS be found.

The next important skill is negotiating a secure sale, which is not necessarily to the person making the highest offer, but to the one who is most able and likely to proceed to completion. Advice on this, only a good Agent can properly provide.

Having made this judgement and advised the homeowner, the real work begins. A potential Buyer may appear to have ‘cash’ as there is not a property to be sold, but where is the money coming from? are there conditions or restrictions on it being released? Does the buyer say that they are able to purchase without dependence on the sale of another property, only to find out at a later stage, that they want to tie in the sale of another property to the transaction, after all! An experienced Agent will judge the character of a Buyer and advise of any concerns. Most people are involved in a chain of transactions, which can extend to other parts of the country, it is an Agents’ job is to investigate all the links of a chain and to establish all the contact details needed to be able to liaise with.

Another duty of an Agent is to prompt and keep prompting, Solicitors (some of whom are very good, but others not so) to carry out searches and make enquiries before contract, expeditiously. Everyone in the chain will have their own desired timetable and these must be coordinated as far as possible. There are many more factors that can arise, which are too numerous to detail here, but the advice is to not be fooled by the ‘smoke and mirrors’ used by some Agents about gimmicky selling and cut-price fees. If you fall for that, it could prove very frustrating and in the long run, an expensive disappointment.