A low fee is easy to compare. The Summit advantage is what sits behind it, and what shapes your result.
Why the cheapest fee isn’t always the best deal
Having worked in both a traditional agency and a low-fee, digital-first model, I know the difference the model behind your agent can make to a sale. Here is what vendors should weigh up before they choose.
More than 50 salespeople working the market
In a model where agents work largely on their own, you know what is happening with your own listings and little else. You’re just siloed off.
That makes it hard to advise a vendor when a property isn’t selling. If you’ve only got your feedback, you can’t tell whether it’s the house, the market or something else.
A large, motivated sales team changes that. With more than 50 salespeople sharing information and buyers, sellers get the benefit of what the whole office is seeing: who is buying, what they are looking at and how similar properties are performing.
More buyers, more competition
The way agents are rewarded also affects who gets to see your home. Where there’s no financial split when another agent makes the sale, there’s little incentive to introduce buyers to someone else’s listing. Agents would much rather find and list the house themselves, keep their buyer and sell it to their own buyer.
In a collaborative agency, everyone shares an interest in matching buyers with the right properties, regardless of who listed them. More buyer connections can mean more interested parties, stronger competition and better outcomes for sellers. There’s healthy internal competition too, which keeps everyone working hard for the best result. Ie. We find the very best buyer.
Marketing buyers can hold
Sellers need enough information to understand not only what their property might be worth, but what is happening around it. Detailed appraisal booklets covering the property and the market do that far better than a presentation delivered almost entirely on a tablet.
The same goes for buyers. Quality printed campaigns, open home information booklets and clear sale and purchase documents help people make confident decisions. A buyer who leaves with a professional booklet in hand is more likely to stay engaged than one who receives only a link or an email.
Reaching buyers who aren’t looking
Not every buyer is searching every day. Someone might see a property in a magazine and realise it suits them, even though they hadn’t been thinking about buying.
The Summit Weekly reaches tens of thousands of people across the top of the South Island, and it becomes particularly valuable when someone is actively looking to buy. You’re way better to be there than not be there.
Visible in the community
Physical offices and prominent street-window displays keep your property in front of local buyers every day. Summit is also a proud supporter of Top of the South businesses, organisations and communities, so we’re part of the community we sell in.
Support that protects your interests
Behind every campaign sits a team of administrators and office managers focused on industry compliance, best practice and results. Additional management oversight helps ensure transactions are handled correctly, which matters when you’re making one of the biggest financial decisions of your life.
Skilled negotiators, flexible methods
Ongoing training and up skilling sharpens presentation, buyer management and negotiation, and that experience helps create competition and achieve the best possible outcome.
It also means choosing the right way to sell. Whether it’s auction, tender, fixed price or offers over, we’ll recommend the most effective approach for your property and the current market.
What about the fee?
A full-service agency costs a little more than a low-cost model, but the difference is small when measured against the sale price of a property.
If you’re sitting there with an offer of $750,000 and you’re worried about the extra bit in the fee, I’m happy to go back and try to get you $755,000. That’s covered the fee, or the resulting commission may have already exceeded your expectations.
Our clients invest in us, so we invest in the campaign, the process and the work required to pursue the best price. Most sellers understand that upfront marketing costs get their property in front of more buyers, and don’t have a problem with them.
Questions worth asking any agent
A low fee is easy to compare. These questions help you compare what sits behind it:
The bottom line
More buyer competition can mean tens of thousands of dollars more. Wider reach and skilled negotiation help create the conditions for a premium result.
Article by;
Ruben Fry
Motueka Sales Manager
027 749 6161
[email protected]