Having dealt with a few sales agents so far, and from my experience, hardly convinced me to pay that much commission... Seriously, from what i've seen, all they did was to turn up on weekend, do a half an hour open and then made a few phone calls to follow up and wait for offers/ auctions. I am sure there are good agents out there, but what ticks the boxes for you guys? For me, i just look for two things: - Have strong brand and network of buyers and sellers I bet all agents you talk to will claim they have a big database of buyers, but in reality most of the "genuine" interests would come from new online listings. The "database" they have were mostly old buyers/sellers in their company and from experience, this is rather useless... I have however seen a few agents with real network, especially in the luxury market, where the agent's face is the brand. When people see his/ her name and the agency's logo, it lifts up the value of the sale package. But this is where personal branding comes in... - Have strong negotiation skills Good agents should be tough negotiator, work for the vendor, not for the buyer. Too many agents will only focus on getting the property sold, but not getting the best price for the vendor. Good agents will advise the vendor to take the listing back, and wait for a better time, if can't get the price vendor wants, unless he really needs to sell. Good agents can also make buyers have a feeling of urgency, and wanting to put in an offer, even though there might not be any offer made.
