Market Comment August 2018

Looking back over the last few months, we note that almost all of our transactions have been off-market.  Which reminded us of a comment from an agent a few years back. The agent said (and this is paraphrasing the comment ) “We have to have a sign on a property, otherwise we would never find buyers”.

I had naively thought that the task of the agent was to match seller and buyer, negotiate the transaction and collect the commission. This agent (no longer in the industry for what must be obvious reasons) thought that the agent’s job was to put a sign on a property and wait for the phone to ring so they could collect the commission.

The market has evolved significantly in the last few years such that effective (and successful)  agents realise that matching vendor and purchaser, both of whom usually come from their database, is only a part of the task. The really good ones are creating the opportunities by identifying, and often creating, scenarios which can benefit both parties to a deal. We extend our thanks to those agents who are using those skills to create and consummate so many deals without the need to even think about erecting a sign.