Qualifying clients & Thoughts on the market

MARKET COMMENT
Following on from the extremely busy December and January, February has been no different. Good levels of enquiry (although enquiries have dropped off marginally during the second half of February) and, most importantly, those enquiries have translated into sales. As usual, to get enquiries, the market needs to be worked, and our experience is that the agents with the most enquiries are those who are most active in the marketplace, and most responsive to clients.

Unfortunately one of the unwelcome side effects of the increase in activity levels is the increase in timewasters - the type who waste several hours of an agent's time, then never return calls or even have the courtesy to reply to an email. It seems to be an aspect of our contemporary society that some of the basic courtesies that traditionally have humanised society, have disappeared.

There is no excuse for it. But we do find that wasted time can be minimised by adequately qualifying the client prior to spending the time:

• What type of business are they?
• Where are they currently located?
• How much space do they currently have?
• What attributes are they looking for in a new location?
• Lease or Buy?
• When does their current lease expire?

Compiling a profile is a great start to being able to spend time productively with a client - or make the call not to waste time from the start !

LET THE MARKET DECIDE
Increasingly we are hearing the refrain from agents "our client has decided to go to auction so that the market can decide what the property is worth". We fear that very often this reflects  that the property owner has actually been badly advised, and that rather than flushing out the best price for their property, in fact they are severely limiting the numbers of potential buyers.

Now, this in fact works well for Expedio. The auction process very often limits the number of potential buyers, rather than the other way round.

The auction process is great if you are trying to flog your old lounge suite on TradeMe. But industrial property ( in the sub $5M range) will more often than not require a due diligence period, LIM and finance. Many buyers are reluctant to commit themselves to paying for these processes prior to an auction when they have no idea whether the price will end up within their budget. And the smaller the property, the more likely the buyer will need finance approved. So often the auction process for industrial property shuts out more buyers than it includes. Good for Expedio. Not so good for vendors.

THE NEED TO REGISTER
The increase in activity has also highlighted the need for agents to register clients. Recently we have seen several instances of the same client visiting the same property with 2 different agents. Expedio doesn't want to get caught in the crossfire between agents, so we are very clear on this - register your client with us in writing. All it takes is a simple email. This also makes it easier for us to identify buyers who are trying to cut out agents!
SIGNS
We have been banging on about signs for years now. It is very simple. No signs without permission.

The message does not seem to have got through to some agents, so henceforth it's simple: If we find a sign erected without permission - it will be removed!
We don't want our properties cluttered with signs. Generally only one sign is permitted.
Ask, by all means, but unless there is a convincing case for more than one sign - it will be one only.