Real Estate Agent of The Year

Most of the time, real estate agents get a really bad rap.

From the outside it looks like they just drive around in flashy cars, take pix on Instagram then list properties and bank the cash.

But the reality is often they have to do hours and hours of work (sometimes weeks / months) in the background to actually help their vendors move through the very emotional and financially diabolical process of selling their home.

Normally, when agents get recognition or win awards, it’s usually for achieving sales targets of one version or another – number of sales, value of sales, total commission, highest funds in vendor paid advertising or other multiple variations on that theme.

Recently though, I saw an amazing agent in action who would be a star candidate for the ‘agent of the year’ trophy.

Like all property transactions, it’s important to keep the specifics confidential . . so the following is a summary of what we experienced during one of our latest purchases.

Situation

We were looking for a mini development project for a client and found a great property matching our requirements. To protect both the innocent and the guilty parties in this scenario, we’ll refer to this property as 32 Goodly St.

32 Goodly St was scheduled for a ‘timed sale’.  This means it’s a bit like buying items on ebay . .where you bid until the final bidder wins, but you’re not buying under auction conditions so you can still do a building and pest inspection and have a cooling period.

I love buying property under a timed sale, as it’s one of the most transparent ways to purchase a property.  You’re not at the end of the phone with the agent telling you there’s a higher offer made by another buyer when you’re not sure there really is anyone else.

Anyway . . we checked out 32 Goodly St, it had good bones and was zoned perfectly for what our buyer needed.  So we participated in the timed auction, and won : – ).

The real story is revealed

Normally, things move rapidly once a timed sale ends.  In this case though, things were different.  The timed sale finished on a Tuesday, but by midday on the Thursday we still didn’t have a signed contract.

By this time I was starting to get a bit suspicious, so thankfully the agent decided to provide a little insight and the real story regarding the sale was revealed.

Without going into fine detail, the vendors were going through a very tricky separation. The vendors were going through a very tight financial situation so needed to sell, but one person in the couple didn’t want to sell at all – we’ll call this person Mr X.

After a few more delays due to long conversations with the two owners, we had a signed contract by the Friday of the week we purchased, so we moved on to organising our finance valuation and the building + pest inspection.  This of course means more people visiting the property and with the vendor who didn’t want to sell (Mr X) still living in the property, it was tricky to navigate access.  The selling agent managed to get this all booked in with what seemed like minimal problems from our side.

While she didn’t reveal this during our inspection (cooling) period, it seems the agent spent an extensive amount of time with Mr X explaining why we needed extra access and talking him through the process.

As it turned out, we did find a few issues with the property during the building + pest inspection so we requested a discount.  This – we found out later – sent Mr X into an absolute melt down.

Eventually, the agent managed to get Mr X to calm down, our request for a discount was accepted and we moved into the unconditional period of the contract . . with just one extra ‘tiny’ condition.

The property had a massive amount of rubbish (motor parts, tyres, bikes, shopping trolleys, building materials) onsite, so we included a condition that the vendors should ensure the property was cleared of all items.  We were hopeful settlement would be smooth sailing, but it was looking shaky.

Towards settlement

During the weeks prior to settlement, we faced numerous technical challenges as the property had a range of different caveats attached to it due to the vendor’s financial circumstances.  At every step, when we needed extra information the agent was on hand to help, gather details and keep things moving towards settlement.

The whole way through this phase, the agent was professionally candid enough with us to keep us up to date with the situation while putting the needs of her clients first. 

The agent was amazing through this period, as she had to visit the property daily – sometimes twice daily – to ensure Mr X stayed on track and continuing to communicate with Mr X to explain his responsibilities and keep him focused on clearing the property.

We only had to postpone settlement for one week – which quite frankly was a miracle given the situation – so we booked our pre-settlement inspection for 24 hours prior to settlement day.

No big surprise . . we turned up for the inspection and there was still quite a number of ‘extra items’ still piled up around the house.  On the bright side, at least the vendor had cleared the main furniture from inside the house, but it was clear he had zero chance of clearing the junk from the exterior in time for settlement the next day.

We have learned from past experience to avoid gambling that the vendor would do the right thing, so we agreed to settle but requested a bond to be held by the agent until the property was cleared.  This, of course, made Mr X very upset and the agent had to step in yet again to calm him down.

Agent in action

Over and above the constant communication with the vendors, the agent stepped up to take responsibility for ensuring all the items were removed from the property.  She coordinated specialist collections (council will only accept four tyres from each property so alternatives had to be found), returned to the property multiple times to ensure the cleaning was progressing, and kept us up to date.

After settlement we learned the agent had been working with the vendors for ten months prior to the property being listed for sale.  She had worked with the vendors to initially find alternative options to meet their needs – could they rent the property out rather than sell, could Mr X stay and rent out a room.

When it became clear that selling was the best option, the agent spent an extensive amount time with the vendor to advise them on how to prepare the property for sale, identify the best selling option (private treaty, timed sale, auction), make suggestions for legal assistance, how to present the property during the viewings with Mr X still living in the property.

It must have been exhausting and the agent no doubt would have spent many hours in providing assistance. 

Getting it over the line

As previewed above, even with an extra week added to the settlement period, when it came time for settlement day . .Mr X was not ready.  There was still a considerable amount of bulky ‘items’ remaining, so the agent helped Mr X understand that the bond we requested would be paid to him if he worked to remove the items in the next 24 hours prior to settlement.

When our team arrived to check the property after settlement, there was still had a couple of trailer loads of ‘items’ remaining on the property.  At this point, the agent stepped in again, offering to collect the remaining items and load her own trailer up to ensure the vendors received the full bond amount.

I have experience in working with some great agents in the last 15 years of buying property, but this agent absolutely stands out as an amazing, supportive and respectful professional.  Wish there was more like her.  Let me know if you want her details . . .