The Animal Kingdom.
The estate agent is a curious creature…despite appearances, largely uninteresting, highly insecure by nature and often in an attempt to impress or intimidate its competition will forage for shiny expensive items…meanwhile…the rest of the animal kingdom yawns and looks on with little or no regard.
Sorry folks…I started this note with a David Attenborough voice in my head, I’d appreciate it if you could go back and read the first paragraph with the same.
It’s silly season…well nearly, so spoiler alert, hold on tight the frivolous journalistic quality of this missive is set to deteriorate fast.
The property market is a daunting environment for hopeful buyers, why I hear you ask? Let’s just call it for what it is, most agents are full of [insert your favourite four letter term here]. But how do you know if you are being spun a yarn? Let’s take a closer look...shall we?
We often help clients purchase and I have observed that agents deploy various threat displays to try and close deals, here are three abundantly used in the real estate domain.
The Singapore Buyer. My personal fave. The story goes like this…there is another super keen buyer in Singapore, exotic, wealthy but too far away to act quickly. *Fun fact, it is true that Singapore is a real place.
The Long Settlement Buyer. Perhaps the most common bleet used to get a deal done. This is a localised version of the Singapore buyer *see above. They are in town, they love the property, they have offered more than you but they need a long settlement. Maybe their house hasn’t sold, maybe they are waiting for some money to come through, maybe they are…not actually real. This tactic is a clever one because the inference is, if you buy now you are actually getting a bargain.
Finally, the Busy Buyer. A popular fable often told at those devastatingly awkward auctions where just the neighbours show up and the auctioneer dies a slow death in front of the crowd, a Greek tragedy if you will. This buyer is very interested but unfortunately due to prior engagements couldn’t get to the auction. Curiously, despite their financial capacity they also don’t possess a mobile phone. Sadly, they are also unsocial animals and find it challenging to locate another human being to attend in their absence.
Jokes aside, if you drive around Sydney you will see that property is still selling…it always has and always will. The key thing is to keep your wits about you.
My advice is if the agent says they have an offer from another party simply ask them to confirm it to you in writing (on letterhead), this sorts things out quickly. When we sell properties we often promise the successful buyer that we will open the file and show them all of offers that they were competing with…it’s an easy fix.
Alrighty, that’s enough from me, I’ll sign off with a very deep quote from the man himself:
‘It is surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us but for all life on earth.’
Until next week,
David