Selling guide
Five characteristics of a great real estate agent
Agent trainer Josh Phegan shares his expert opinion.
AI summary
According to agent trainer Josh Phegan, the best real estate agents share five key characteristics. They possess deep expertise to maximize your sale price and can "read the play" to navigate changing market conditions.
A great agent also has:
- Data-driven insights for sound advice
- High energy to guide clients confidently
- A devotion to exceptional customer experience
These traits ensure sellers and buyers receive the best guidance and achieve optimal results in any property market.
In this listings-rich housing market, whether you’re a buyer or a seller, you’ll be relying on your real estate agent to advise you when to act on a property and when to recognise a good offer. At the recent Trade Me Property Impact Awards, we rewarded agents for their positive attitudes, their market knowledge, for genuine care of clients no matter how big their budget, and for being active members of the community. We also commended agents who were adept digital marketers, able to move nimbly in a changing market.
We asked Josh Phegan, international agent trainer of high performance real estate agents in Aotearoa, Australia and beyond, to add to this conversation and he listed the most crucial attributes an agent should have to compete in the upcoming busy spring selling season.
The best agents have:
1. Breadth and depth of expertise
Winning a listing and then knowing what to do really matters.The skill of any great agent is what they do before, during and after the sale. Home buyers pay more for houses when everything is already done for them. A great agent will recommend what to do, how to maximise your sale price, sell your house, reduce the risk and make it easy.
2. The ability to read the play
The best agents anticipate the market of the day. We’ve gone from the lowest interest rates in recorded history to the most expensive we’ve seen in 14 years. How agents work with buyers, approach marketing and position a property has never been more important. Not every market is the same and there are markets within markets, the best agents will know this.
3. All the relevant data to advise you on
A good agent will be able to tell you what’s on the market, what’s sold recently, what’s driving prices up or down and they’ll tell you where buyers hang out. They’ll provide advice based on their analysis of the conditions of the day, interest rates, government policy, supply and demand and they’ll have a view of what to do next. A great agent may recommend not selling the property if that’s the right thing to do, it’s advice that only comes with experience and knowledge.
4. Great energy
Having great stores of energy is important for an agent. They’ll adapt to the market and recommend the right action. A great agent will empathetically connect, yet know what to do to get the buyer or the seller to a better place. In a tougher market, they’ll give the buyer and the seller the confidence to make a decision now.
5. A devotion to customer experience
A great agent will create customer experiences with care, reducing the ups and downs and guaranteeing results. Agents who are systems-oriented will show this in their follow-up, in the quality of their responses, the documents they use and the way they talk. Excellent agents are always working on improving the customer experience. A phone call is not a “call back”, it’s a chance to serve a buyer, who could become a seller or a landlord.
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