Real estate agent Peter Lorimer has some advice for agents when it comes to why they are worth their commission:
According to Peter,
“If you are an agent who really goes above and beyond, and you know who I’m talking to here, I mean agents that don’t do this – “Yes Mrs Brown, we’ll just take a few snaps (with my phone), and we’ll put you on the market next Friday.”
I’m talking about people that hire professional photographers, professional videographers, that do beautiful graphics, that do beautiful websites, and drone shoots. You guys, you’re worth every penny.”
In other words, the professional real estate agent knows the value in working with others who are professional at what they do. Those are the agents who earn their commission. However, a seller who selects their agent based on a lower commission fee is not the kind of client that a professional real estate agent wants or needs to be working with:
“If a seller’s focus is purely how cheap they can get their agent, and you are an agent who prides themselves on going way above and beyond, and giving 200 percent or more, maybe you should walk away from that listing. I have, many, many, many times.”
I think that’s a brave but necessary thing to do. I know within my business that not every potential client is an ideal for me and what I do, and that’s because some of them want a low-cost service rather than a high-value service. And that’s okay because everyone is different, but it helps to recognize that this is possible in a world with people who appreciate different things, and that some people understand the value of a wise investment in different ways.
So how can an agent who is doing exceptional photography and amazing marketing use that to pickup more listings?
“Those of us who really go above and beyond (then) when you’re sitting with your sellers trying to get that listing appointment, show them the videos, show them the 3d tours, show them anything and everything. And above all else, show them evidence of houses you’ve sold.”
This is very clever, because what this does is it elicits an emotional response from the quality photography and videos, and it brings on a numbers response based on the properties that have been sold, especially if any of those listings were sold after being previously listed with another agent that used low-quality real estate photography.
So those real estate agents who know that investing in quality photography works for them then their focus needs to be on showing that point of difference to their potential sellers.
Are you the type of real estate agent that does hire professional photographers, videographers and others to create your marketing campaigns?
Or are you more likely to do that yourself in order to save a few dollars?
And if that’s the case, are you prepared to say to a potential seller that the reason why you don’t hire a professional real estate photographer or videographer is because you would rather keep a few extra dollars in your pocket?
That would be rather awkward, wouldn’t it?