The buying and selling of real estate is a significant part of Australian culture, as our country is known for its love of property. With a beautiful sprawling continent, it’s easy to see why so many people choose to invest their financial futures into real estate. Because of this culture, a residential purchase or sale can be one of the biggest financial and emotional decisions made throughout the course of a lifetime. With so many variables involved in the buying and selling process, it’s important to know you’ve got a real estate agent on your team who cares about creating a win-win scenario for everybody involved, rather than just the size of their commission.
When you’re on the lookout for the right real estate agent to place your home on the market or assist you in your next purchase, there’s many easy factors to take into consideration, such as commission size, results history, and testimonials. But beyond these factors, there’s something even more important: integrity.
Why integrity? Why would this matter more than, say, the sales figure of their last few properties on the market, or how much they’re asking for in commissions?
Integrity is defined as ‘the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles’. The real estate industry can be a fickle one to navigate, with a number of agents out there to make a fast profit, without much concern for whether or not they’re actually achieving the goals of their client and their client’s family in the process. As you embark on your sales or purchasing journey, you’ll be faced with many key moments of decision that will have a big impact on your financial health and position. In those moments, you’ll need to be able to wholeheartedly trust the advice of an industry professional, who can let you know whether or not your asking price is fair against market value, if you should hold out for a higher offer or take the offer on the table, whether you’re overcommitting yourself, and so on. An agent who’s looking for a quick turn-around – to complete their commitment to you in a fast time frame in order to release their commission – won’t necessarily be motivated by your needs as much as they will their own.
This is where integrity becomes a huge and defining factor in the search for the best real estate agent to join your team. By working with an agent who values integrity as a key foundation for their business practices, you won’t be rushed into a decision that’s motivated by anything but what’s best for your goals. You’ll be able to trust your agent’s advice and input, whilst also having the time and space you need to consider all options at each fork in the road. At the end of the day, a win for you is a win for your agent, so partnering with an agent who prioritises you in this way is only going to work out for the best.
Entrepreneur Ben Horowitz writes in his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things ‘we take care of the people, the products, and the profit – in that order.’ Find yourself a real estate agent who works in this order of priority, and you’ll be blown away by the difference it makes.