There is only one true way for sellers to ensure they will be happy with an agent’s outcome and this is the number of transactions completed.
The industry’s accepted way that real estate agents present their sales performance and the state of the market is unreliable.
When it comes to outlining sales success, there are few objective figures property sellers can trust. The lack of standard reporting processes across the industry baffling.
Headlines about high auction clearance rates are often used as sounding boards for buyers and sellers to make property decisions. Yet these reported figures don’t come close to offering an accurate reflection of the market. The key problem lies in the fact that many agents include in the count those properties sold outside the official auction clearance week.
Some agents measure their performance through ‘days on the market’, yet this might mean a house was on the market for 14 days, went under contract, but the deal fell through due to other circumstances, such as a failed building and pest inspection.
Rather than put the house back on the market and continue where they left off, some real estate agents will pitch it as a new listing and start afresh from day one. This skews the numbers and is deceptive considering the confidence people put into these figures.
Some agents may use median prices. While this gives an indication of general trends, it can be easily manipulated depending on the city, suburb or street used, and heavily depends on the sample size captured.
There is only one true way for sellers to ensure they will be happy with an agent’s outcome and this is the number of transactions completed, which illustrates the health of the market. When you look at one particular agent, the number of deals they’ve successfully made within a time frame is the best indication of how well your house should sell.
To put it in perspective, our sales team at Coronis sell more than four times the industry average.
If agencies were to take this transparent approach, it would boost the reputation of sales agents and reveal their true value to clients, thereby increasing commission opportunities and business growth.