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The strong surge of buyers in the marketplace has led some agents to become complacent, according to an award-winning agent.
Sales agent at McGrath Hunters Hill John Paranchi told Real Estate Business agents were not servicing buyers effectively, due to the high number coming into the market.
“Today’s buyers, as far as I’m concerned, are tomorrow’s sellers,” the 2013 Australian Real Estate Awards Sales Agent of the Year said.
“I'm here for the long haul and having a real focus on following up every one of our buyers, keeping in touch with them consistently, making sure they get into our buyer alert database, speaking to them not the day before the auction to see if they're coming, but speaking to them three or four times during the course of an auction sale.
“It's pretty stressful being a buyer out there at the moment. I don't want them ringing me, so I'm ringing them.”
He said agents were losing a gold mine of opportunities to service buyers who wanted their advice.
“I'm thinking to myself, not only are you not following up someone who's put their hand up and said 'Listen, I've got some interest in this property', but imagine if your vendor knew you weren't following up every single buyer,” Mr Paranchi said.
“Yes, you might have got an offer but you don't know what the next person's going to pay. You need to keep in touch with your buyers and that's not happening at the moment.”
Mr Paranchi said the more buyers he spoke to, the more information he would receive.
“We know what they've bid on, we know what they've missed out on, so when it's time to negotiate on one of my vendors' properties, I've got this information and I can use that information to get the best result for my vendor, at the same time as keeping in touch with my buyers,” he said.
Director of Jason Andrew Auctioneers Jason Andrew said the current marketplace was “breeding” bad habits for everyone.
“We shortcut processes everywhere and no one really wins out of a great market. We make hay while the sun shines and we treat people with contempt," he said.
“It’s not a positive thing for business. It’s funny when markets tighten how much nicer we are to buyers and how much better we are at applying processes.”
The media is painting positive stories about sale prices, which are significantly inflating vendors’ expectations, he said.
“Now more than ever we are having buyers in the market … but we are having sellers who aren’t willing to meet the market on the other side," said Mr Andrew.
Mr Andrew said a stalemate was being created as buyers were unwilling to paying too much or were worried about the market falling after they bought, and this buyer fear was detrimental to businesses.
Agents need to provide information to clients to help them make informed decisions, he said.
“We need to spend more time not only with our buyers, but with our sellers. We just want to cut corners everywhere, so time and energy into the right places will see better results," he said.
