Home Sellers Must “Buy” the Team Approach for Maximum Exposure

Everyone has an opinion on what added value the real estate agent brings (or doesn’t) to the real estate transaction.  For the purpose of this blog post, let’s assume that a seller is fortunate enough to find an agent who s/he believes will bring real value to the home selling process.  If one agent brings value, a team of agents working on your behalf increases that value exponentially.  Bear with me here.

In today’s real estate market where financing restrictions and unemployment have thinned the pool of qualified buyers, it has never been more important to make sure that any prospective buyer sees your home when they want to see it.  I have personally called agents to schedule appointments to show their exclusive properties and been told "Honey, I’m not taking the train from Greenwich that early in the morning.  You will have to show it at a later time?"  That specific appointment request was for 10:30AM for a vacant apartment.  Not a terribly over the top request.  That buyer never saw that property and eventually purchased something else while that home languished on the market for months.  It is not uncommon these days for buyers to have 5-10 properties to see that meet their criteria for their new home and if they see 9 of those 10, they just may NOT make it back to yours if your agent can’t accommodate their schedules.

The example above is not the norm.  Most agents are incredibly accommodating when it comes to showing property, particularly in a market where transaction volume has dropped so drastically from the same period last year.  That said, one person can’t be in multiple places at the same time. I know that sounds ridiculous and obvious but assume that your agent has 5 or 6 exclusive properties that they are showing at any given time (some have as many as 20 or more).  It is not unlikely that appointment requests will be made for 2 or more of those properties at the same time. If the agent is unsuccessful in manipulating schedules to insure that all appointments are made and all prospective buyers see your home then you may have lost an opportunity to actually sell your home.  The buyer may very well see something else and NEVER circle back to your home.

The solution to this scheduling problem is not rocket science but rather a team approach to assisting sellers with the home sale and accommodating ALL prospective buyers for the property. Most of the more successful agents in Manhattan have built very professional teams around them. The reason that they are still so successful in today’s slower real estate market is not simply because of their experience but also because they can show multiple properties at any given time thanks to the support that they receive from their teams.

The team approach to selling real estate insures that your property gets the 24/7 attention that it requires.  In addition to the availability of multiple agents to show your property, a seller also benefits by having multiple professionals (led by the team leader/top producer) come together regularly to design advertising and marketing strategies that best suit your property.  And the team leader is ALWAYS the person spearheading all marketing efforts and negotiations.

The landscape of the real estate market continues to change in dramatic ways and the days of the single agent servicing multiple sellers is behind us.  For sellers who want to insure that every single prospective purchaser sees their home, they must hire a successful real estate team.  And don’t forget, you must also let them show your property when they need to show it.  But that is an entirely other blog post.