Building on Success
Forming a team gives successful agents a platform of support from which they can continue building their business. According to Dooley, teambuilding is paramount to success at The Hudson Company.
“As agents, we are extremely collaborative and supportive of each other in terms of data analysis, but it is also extremely important to understand that the person most likely to sell a listing of yours is another agent,” Dooley said. “It is as important to market to the agents as to the end consumer, because they are going to be working with their own clients.”
To DuBray, assembling a team meant finding people who worked at her pace and on her wavelength. “They have to be somebody who works like you do,” DuBray said. “Ultimately, people are hiring you, and you have to stay as a nucleus on the transaction, no matter how many people you have working for you. When I hired my assistant, I was doing a lot. Something had to give, and it wasn’t going to be my family. You have to know when to hire someone, and you have to hire the right people.”
Crafting the Best Deal
Real estate agents’ expertise is one area where consumers continue to find value. In NAR’s 2015 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends Report, assistance with negotiations ranked high among the services homebuyers most wanted from an agent, with 12 percent wanting agents to help negotiate the terms of the sale. An additional 11 percent wanted assistance negotiating the purchase price. Among sellers, 5 percent sought help with negotiating and dealing with buyers.
Colagiovanni sees negotiations as a chess game, in which top producers with superior knowledge and experience are bound to come out ahead.
“We must know how amicable the opponent and their broker are and have the ability to predict outcomes in order to effectively guide our clients,” Colagiovanni said. “During negotiations, top producers become advisors, a counselor to their clients, buyers and sellers. They have completed more transactions. Their exposure to human behavior, properties, nuances within the market and or sub-market, intricacies of various condo and co-op buildings is so much greater than that of a young agent or broker to this business.”
Initiating negotiations from a position of strength is also important to DuBray.
“I think that being the No. 1 agent in a specific area helps, because when people come to you with those lower comps, you’ve been in all of them and you can combat what they’re trying to tell you,” she said. “That helps the seller, as does your first-hand knowledge. It gives you a better chance for your clients and gets the other agent to respect and listen to you.”
Dooley considers research and analysis to be vital to the negotiating process, and to serving her clients. “It’s very important to do a lot of analysis up front; bring a respectful relationship, and have a lot of patience and creative problem-solving,” Dooley said. “Most deals are much more difficult today than they were in the past, but the objective on both sides is still the same.”