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Agents and media companies encourage sellers to focus on the amount, size and positioning of advertising, all of which come with extra cost. Sellers are often convinced this extra advertising is necessary to sell their property and are then required to pay thousands of dollars in upfront costs.

However, Smartre Agents understand that Quality Marketing has been shown as a cost-effective alternative that attracts the same buyers with no financial risk for the seller.

The Smartre Sale uses Quality Marketing designed to allow every potential buyer to find and inspect the property. Quality Marketing consists of the right price, good quality photography, a great script, and smart recording of buyer enquiries.

Agents often claim that you can’t sell a secret. However, in the age of online marketing – with detailed buyer databases, filtered searches, and new property alerts – agents are still attempting to convince sellers to pay upfront for largely unnecessary marketing campaigns.

No property is a secret on the Internet.

Another important fact to note is not every property sells with the first agent. Auction clearance rates vary greatly and rarely climb above 60%.

Sellers (not agents), nearly always bear the marketing costs of any failed campaign, costs that routinely run into thousands of dollars.

The Smartre Sale marketing campaign will produce the best buyer – that’s why there are no upfront costs to sellers. Surely the true test of any marketing campaign is its end result: has the property sold?

If the answer is no, then why should the seller pay?

Therefore, the golden rule of selling property is:

Pay no money (including marketing costs) until your property is sold and you are happy with the result.

The Smartre Sale requires pricing information that is evidence-based be provided to the seller prior to the sales process beginning. This is in the form of comparable, recently sold properties, reference to other properties that will compete within the same buyer pool and current market demand for their style of property.

When sellers have an accurate price indication, they can make decisions based on evidence rather than opinion. This is critical in reducing the ever-present risk of underselling.

One of the most despised traits in real estate agents is their willingness to either inflate or omit the likely selling price of a property to get business. Unfortunately, this is still a common practice throughout the industry.

The two most common lies told by real estate agents involve the price estimate quoted to potential sellers. They are:

• The Improbable Lie

This is when an agent intentionally inflates a property’s potential selling price; it’s the lie most people are aware of and dislike about real estate agents.

• The Lie of Omission

This is when an agent, knowing the probable selling price, chooses not to tell the owner. The Lie of Omission is a subtle lie, but prevalent in the industry.

Both lies have the capacity to hurt sellers financially and emotionally.

An agent who is honest about all facets of selling, including price, is a rare and true professional.

Remember, any method of sale should be chosen on its ability to find the best buyer for a property in the seller’s preferred time frame. Furthermore, it must facilitate negotiation of a buyer’s maximum price, often this can be $30,000 or more extra in a seller’s pocket.

The Smartre Sale is being used hundreds of times every week to fulfil these obligations to sellers.

Smartre Agencies appreciate how buyer inspection preferences affect the final sale price. The inspection process is the penultimate step to the negotiation.

The Smartre Sale requires that one-on-one inspections are always available to buyers. This is particularly important in a stable or falling market.

If the power tips towards the buyer, a property should be available for inspection at a time that suits them. If a genuine buyer wants an inspection, the agent should arrange it. In stable or falling markets there are fewer buyers and more properties for sale. Forcing buyers to wait for a scheduled open home increases the chance they will purchase elsewhere.

A private appointment to inspect, set promptly, increases a buyer’s expectation this property will sell quickly, in turn increasing the negotiation power of the seller.

Smart Open Homes should be conducted to attract buyers that may otherwise not enquire on the property. Smartre Agents check identification and collect contact information before anyone enters the property.

Effective follow-up enables Smartre Agents to develop an understanding of an interested buyer, their motives and budget – information necessary to negotiate the best price.

Many agents only use one method of inspection. To guarantee the best price, Smartre Agencies use a strategy that involves both Smart Open Homes and Private Inspections.

Most agents simply don’t understand real estate negotiation and instead choose to use an ‘offer process’.

This is not negotiation. An ‘offer process’ is simply the conveying of a buyer’s offer to the seller. Smart sellers realise that this isn’t a negotiation strategy, but rather a basic mediation.

A mediator is a person who assists and guides parties toward their own resolution. The mediator does not decide, nor influence the outcome. They simply allow parties to reach an acceptable agreement with one another.

When selling property, you do not want a mediator. Sellers need a negotiation strategy and a trained negotiator.

The Smartre Sale is quite simply the best method of negotiation when there are multiple buyers and the only effective method of sale when there is only one.

Here is some clarity around that statement.

• Why is The Smartre Sale the best method when there are multiple buyers?

The quality marketing and inspection strategies ensure there are no buyers that don’t discover, and then inspect, the property.

With multiple buyers, a competitive (rather than comparative) negotiation strategy is essential. Any method that allows a buyer to see, or even have an indication of, another’s offer guarantees the property will be undersold.

The Smartre Sale ensures each interested party in a multiple buyer scenario pays their maximum price, ensuring that a property is never undersold.

• Why is The Smartre Sale the only effective method when there is only one buyer?

The same components just mentioned, quality marketing and an integrated inspection strategy, ensure when there is only one great buyer they will be found. The Smartre Sale Quadrant Negotiation Strategy comprising Detachment, Knowledge, Relationship and Risk ensures that even a single buyer pays their maximum.

An agent’s negotiation ability is their true value to the seller – a point that is often overlooked or misunderstood. The skills and tactics employed after an interested buyer is found – the method of sale, the marketing, the pricing, and the inspections – all lead to this final negotiation.

The contract negotiation is the last chance a seller gets to obtain the best price in the market today.

An agent with great negotiation skills and the right strategy can make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars. With the wrong agent, the loss to the sellers can be in the tens of thousands.

Smartre Agencies understand their most important duty is that of a negotiator on behalf of sellers.