I see a lot of people on online property investment forums posing questions such as “I would like to know what Real Estate Agents actually DO to earn their commission on the sale of a property?
The answers given by respondents are generally mixed. Some say “By finding a buyer”, others say “By giving people the opportunity to buy your property”. Well this is true.
We do bring buyers to your property, but that is only what the public see.
Do you want to know the real secret about real estate agents?
Well as you have probably figured out yourself, any monkey can put up a sign board, order a professional real estate photographer and load the photographs up onto the internet.
Yes, of course buyers will come to your house in droves (provided the advertised price is right).
The agent doesn’t even need to be the one showing them through. At this stage you’re probably thinking “I’m selling myself out of a job!”
I’ll tell you the secret now….. The answer is NEGOTIATION.
If you are a buyer, here are some great negotiation strategies for getting the home you want.
Now let me break this down for you.
A good agent creates an environment, almost like a pressure cooker situation, where he/she can make the buyer push up their offer beyond what they were originally willing to pay for the house.
So when the agent is talking to the seller, he/she can say with confidence “This is the maximum that all the buyers can pay”.
Now you might be thinking “Well I can do that. I’m good at negotiating.”
Well, good real estate agents spend $1000’s of dollars learning from the top Agents in Australia and the U.S.A.
I have seen some Top Gun real estate agents spend countless hours in coaching and honing their selling system in the real word.
If you look at the top ten real estate agents in Australia you notice they are highly systemised in their negotiation process, stick to what works, and learnt it all from the school of hard knocks.
If you are still not willing to pay an agent for this skill let me tell you a little story
In the 1980’s there was a big-time newspaper company in New York City but there was a problem with their printing press.
The whole thing shut down despite the efforts of staff and for each minute the printing press was down it cost the newspaper company $10,000.
They called in a specialist engineer immediately at 3am in the morning.
He was down there in 12mins, walked up to the machine, asked one question, opened the operators box, rubbed his chin, and said “AAHHH… here it is.”
He turned one screw and the printing press restarted. 2 days later the specialist engineer received a phone call from the newspaper company editor. “A $100,000 bill for one screw and 5mins? Are you crazy? How do you justify that?” the editor screamed.
The engineer said, “Well if you want an invoice break down: call-out free $40, knowing what screw to turn, $99,060.”
Negotiation skills are the same and a 5 minute convocation can make or lose you $10,000.
If you want to prove that a real estate agent is worth their money, ask them to demonstrate their negotiation process and skills.
If you’re not happy with the answer don’t hire them. Simple!
The art of property sales writing and how it’s proven to generate more buyer enquiry
I personally know a real estate agent that sold a house in 11 hours because of his creative sales writing skills.
Agents call this skill copywriting and it is technical writing skills all big newspapers.
My agent friend was trying to sell a DUMP of a house and the previous agent had gotten very little enquiry on over 18 months. and magazines use to get you to read their stories.
So what did he do? No he didn’t write “renovated delight”.
He did copy writing 101, he wrote an engaging head line, “A-grade dump” and went on in the description Tell buyer to ‘Bring your vomit bucket’, ‘wear your safety goggles’ and ‘call in the CSI crew’.
Now I don’t suggest this for all homes in all markets but think about it, would you read this ad if you were scrolling for homes on your mobile? I would.
Now this gained the attention of the British and Australian media. What I found most interesting is that the buyers loved it, it was memorable and they shared it with their friends.

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'What Do Real Estate Agents Really Do For Their Money?' have 3 comments
January 9, 2016 ChrisH
….from the Buyer’s view point it is a ‘war’ of 2 against 1…arrogant,greedy and bloody know it all Real estate agent with a stupid ignorant vendor….no prisoners taken….lies and more bloody lies….Trying to sell an overpriced piece of garbage….!!
January 10, 2016 Michael Yardney
I’m not sure why you say this Chris – if your house was for sale would you call in “garbage”
April 18, 2015 Gordon Jablonski
I found this blog really beneficial for everyone as it contains the real secrets about the real estate agents. Keep sharing!