One of the biggest complaints I hear from buyers is “I don’t think I’m seeing the best properties”.
It sounds ridiculous because:
- The agents should be phoning you straight away when they take on a suitable property
- In this information age you would expect to have access to the entire market at the click of a mouse
but as I show in my book, neither is true.
How many properties will you miss out on?
Well here is a generic email I received from Jackson Stops, a mid-size estate agency:
“Tell us what you really want and what you are realistically looking to spend. Did you know, for example, that we have a number of properties on our books that are not advertised for one reason or another but are very much for sale; by default, you will not find these by trawling through the websites… You might be interested to hear that c.20% of our sales this year haven’t made it to the open market.”
Indeed, the larger agencies openly admit that at least 20% of their sales are off-market and the more expensive the property the higher the number that never reach the open market – well over 50%. And then there are all the properties that the agents don’t know about!
If you are planning to buy a property for under £500,000 then the websites are probably ok. But if you are planning to acquire a property for over £1 million, then would it be unreasonable to suggest that you need a more sophisticated approach? Unless, of course, you don’t mind acquiring a mediocre property.
Because, even if only 20% of the properties are sold off-market that doesn’t tell the whole story. How many of them do you think are the best properties and opportunities?
So, to have total market coverage and ensure that you have first refusal on the best opportunities, both on and off market, you simply cannot rely on websites. In short, you must become the “Dominant Buyer” and there are several steps that you need to take to ensure that this happens.
Because if you don’t, how will you feel when you see the details of your ideal home or investment, call the agent to arrange a viewing and are told “Sorry, this has already been sold, but tell me what you are looking for”?
And if you ask “Why didn’t you tell me about it? I am registered with you and you have all my details”, you will probably hear the estate agent classic: “We had someone especially lined up to buy it”.
You may well ask, why weren’t you lined up? And then you disappear down the rabbit hole of dealing with estate agents whose legal obligation is to the sellers and not you.
“All the houses Jeremy showed us met the criteria we had given him and what was refreshing was to see properties that were not on the open market, so we knew that we were seeing the best of the best. There was one property that really stood out for us… It ticked just about every box we could hope for and wasn’t on any of the property portals, so we would never have found it ourselves.” Mr & Mrs J Cole (Kensington & Chelsea)
The good news is there are several ways you can be the person who hears about the best opportunities first. If you are open to receiving information on some of the more advanced techniques I use to help my clients acquire the best property their money can buy and negotiate prices they didn’t think possible, simply email my assistant at [email protected] or call 02034578855 (+442034578855 from outside the UK).
