This thing is getting real now...

Last nights late valuation meeting was a tough one and a real eye opener for me. My second meeting with the clients, their text said 'Come over James as we'd like to discuss fees'. Great, I thought, this is sounding positive.

I arrived 5 minutes early and the client didn't hesitate to tell me that at my last visit, I was actually the 4th agent that day. The fee I'd proposed apparently was the highest, however my report back to them installed more confidence in them as I'd taken a good few hours to really research the market, looking at property footprint sizes, previous sales, current stock and even calling another agent to get good intel on a very recent sale! They told me that they'd discounted two agents purely on the basis that they gave an unrealistically high valuation and hadn't even offered any supporting data - which agents is really getting noticed now, so stop it! 

We spent a good 30 minutes talking in high spirits and they told me that I was their preferred 'high street agent'. I started sweating a little.

'Have you been looking at online options?', I asked hesitantly. 

Then I realised the next 30 minutes would be a difficult task as I now needed to sell my value, and its getting more difficult the bigger the likes of PB become. 

The conversation ebbed and flowed and I'm quite sure that I managed to sell myself as well as I'm able to. They liked me passion, my reviews, my fee scale that rewards me if I get an expectional result, but also that shrinks if I don't. They also liked the fact my appraisal was honest, and I had presented a strategy I thought would help to garner more interest in their property which would likely lead to a better end result for them.

It's not an easy task to sell yourself against an agent with a fee that is ￡10,000 less. Although I was confident that the result I would eventually obtain would more than make up the difference, some sellers seem to think that property generally sells for a set price regardless of the motivation of the guy doing the selling. 

I know this isn't true (read Freakonomics for a more detailed analysis). And I'm more motivated than most agents as I'm self employed, don't receive a basic, and the commission I earn is structured in a way so that a ￡20,000 difference in the result for the client may affect me by several thousand pounds.  I am absolutely not in the habit of coercing a client into accepting an offer if I believe it can be bettered. For me service is everything, and often I'll help clients find properties and negotiate for them or at least give them solid advice throughout the whole buying process.

I don't know what the client will do yet, and I hope I've offered enough for them to trust me and have faith that I'll work as hard as you can expect anyone to for the result they want. 

But this thing is getting real...thats for sure.