This is the third in a series – see all the posts

Differences in How Buyers and Sellers Choose Agents

NAR’s 2007 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers pointed out some interesting differences in how buyers and sellers choose an agent.  Keep in mind that the questionnaire that provided the basis for the Profile was sent to home buyers.  The home buyers and sellers from the survey are actually the same individuals, answering from different perspectives.

 The first thing that caught my attention was this statistic.

• Did the Seller use the same real estate agent for their home purchase?
  • 47% - Yes
  • 53% - No

I’m sure distance contributed to the reasons why the same agent wouldn’t be used for both a purchase and sale.  However, the median distance the buyers moved, according to the Profile, was 13 miles, indicating that long distance moves were not the most common.

Priorities Change When Selling a Home

I wondered if anything in the Profile would indicate another reason why different agents were hired.  I think part of the answer lies in the differences in how buyers and sellers choose an agent.

When an individual is selling their home:

• The reputation of the agent jumped 10% in importance.
• Honest and trustworthy still came in second, but even the importance of working with a friend or family decreased somewhat.
• The agent having a caring personality and being a good listener dropped in importance by 5%.

Lessons Learned

Agents need to market differently to buyers and sellers.  The person looking to buy a home wants to work with someone who is warm and fuzzy:  honest, trustworthy, caring and a good listener.  And, that makes sense since they will be spending a lot of time with that agent .

Sellers indicated that the most important thing they wanted from a listing agent was to sell their home within a specific timeframe.  Sellers are looking for someone who they think has that ability.  So, the reputation of the agent is much more important, undoubtedly in terms of how effective that agent is in getting homes sold.

And, again, where reputation is an important criteria, it’s much more effective to illustrate your reputation than talk about it.  A great question to ask your sellers, keeping in mind that you want to use open-ended questions, is something like this:

• How well did the timing of getting your home sold meet your objectives?

When the same person is both the buyer and seller, it means you must focus on reinforcing both sides of your personality and your business.  For example, you can’t sacrifice showing your caring side to come across as an aggressive marketer.  It’s an interesting line to walk.

Do you usually help your clients purchase a new home and sell their old one?  How does your experience match with the responses in the NAR Profile?