Throughout the South African residential property sector in recent years, long established and experienced estate agents have time and again found that rivals, desperate to get mandates, have exaggerated the prices that are likely to be obtainable on the homes they wish to sell.
Discussing this issue, Louis Schoeman, the Rawson Property Group’s franchisee for Durbanville, says that he encounters this difficulty regularly.
“On a price for which the market value, in my estimation, is quite clearly ± R2 million, the seller may insist that we price it at R2,5 million. When we point out that this is counterproductive and say that the price is unrealistic, it is quite possible that the seller will listen to the advice of other agents pricing above the market value – and award them the mandate.”
What should the thwarted agent do then?
“At this point,” says Schoeman, “many agents will walk away from the client. We have, however, found that it pays to keep in touch and not to take umbrage because in eight cases out of ten, a few months later the frustrated and annoyed client will recognize the validity of the original estimate from our team and will then come back to us. This type of ‘returning to the fold’ has already done a great deal to raise our profile and bring us kudos in the Durbanville property sector.”
