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Commission is a real estate agent’s bread and butter. However, when a deal is close, some vendors get cold feet about the amount of commission on the table.
Speaking on an episode of the Secrets of the Top 100 Agents podcast, McGrath’s Kieran Bresnahan has revealed how he deals with being confronted about his commission.
“It’s super important that the agent establishes that that is the only thing that’s stopping [a vendor from] moving forward with you,” Mr Bresnahan told host Tim Neary.
Once you have established that commission is the only real concern the vendor has before signing with you, then you can prove to the client why you are worth it.
Some vendors have looked around at the different commission agents are charging, and if that is an obstacle Mr Bresnahan is faced with, he confronts it head-on.
“If myself and the other agent were the same fee, who would you feel most comfortable using?” he would ask the vendors. “In a lot of cases, they’ll say, ‘Well, we would like to use you, but we’re not sure we can justify the fee’.”
In that situation, he puts the question back on the clients, asking them why they want to use him.
“They’re reaffirming to themselves why they want to use me,” he said.
“You need to be smart enough to lay the conversation where you want it to go without bagging your opposition and without telling the owner that it’d be silly to go that way.”
Mr Bresnahan has a way of casting doubt over the vendor’s decision to list with an agent with less commission.
If he knows his competitor charges 25 per cent less commission than him, he will ask the clients why they think that agent feels the need to charge less.
“Of course, they want the business, but why would they do that?” he would ask the home owners. “What I’m looking to do is to create doubt and fear.”
He may not always get the outcome he wants, but Mr Bresnahan makes sure he addresses any doubt during his first meeting with a possible client to increase his chances of securing the listing.
“If you don’t list the property on the first appointment, it gets very hard because as time passes... [that chance] fades and all that will keep coming back [in later visits] is that you’re more expensive.”
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