In the current World, where new technology makes any product or service more accessible than ever, for what we only need to just click; many times, we need distinguish between two concepts that are intimately related but at the same time are different: efficiency and effectiveness. According to management guru Peter Drucker: “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things”.
As far as I understand that statement -and based on the daily management of my business-, when we talk about effectiveness, we are referring to getting a goal at any price. However, regarding to efficiency, this is about getting the same result, but with the minimum use of resources. Meaning, -to make it simple- without spending like a sailor.
Thus, if we take this criterion to the housing market; our goal is being as much efficient as possible for our clients, getting the best deal for their pockets. When it is about buying, getting the house at the minimum price; and when it is about selling, sell their property at the highest price of the current market.
And of course, as we said at the beginning, new technology is changing a lot of things and the majority for better. In fact, finding a house or a buyer for our home, never has been as simple as it is nowadays, thanks to the internet. It is as simple as entering a browser, selecting the characteristics, price and location, and we can access to dozens of properties that fulfills our requirements. And if what we want to sell a house, in a very fast and easy way, we can upload our home to any listing website in less than one hour.
Therefore, we all agree with the idea that achieving our target of buying or selling with effectiveness, is relatively easy. But… does it guarantees doing it in the most efficiency way? Meaning, accomplishing it in the minimum time and at best market price. Because of that, knowledge, experience and resources are necessary. In fact, this is something with what the internet cannot help us yet. At least, if that service is not “outsourced” to PEOPLE.
Actually, and according to the statistics, around 70% of people start the search for buying or selling their home through the internet, and 40% of that group ends up accomplishing the operation through a real estate agent. This is regarding to various factors, but as we said at the beginning, mainly it is because of the matter of efficiency. Being more concrete, there are 2 factors that are going to condition that result: time and money. Also, the legal guarantee that gives the support of someone with the know-how and a minimum background, but as in this point it seems that I have certain conflict of interest, I´d rather not get involved, at least not in this publishing.
1st FACTOR: TIME
The searching or selling process of a house can be exhausting, at least this is what majority of our clients say when they spend some time in the market. For avoiding these unnecessary delays, it is important to make a filter of customers and properties, planning the visits on properties that really fits to their searching criteria. Most of the agencies have a CRM, and using a protocol for client’s classification, the “marriage” between buyer and seller speeds up drastically.
In this point I could add endless factors, but most of them are already included in an article that I wrote a few months ago “6 mistakes to avoid when selling your home”; which I invite you to consult, because I am sure that many of you would find it useful.
2nd FACTOR: MONEY
The statistics at the International scale are clear at this point. In an article published in 2015 by NAR (National Association of Realtors), the average price of selling when the operation was closed through a real estate agent was 217.950 €. However, when the sale was closed directly between owners, this price went down to 183.800 €. And when those owners had a relationship between them (relatives, neighbours, friends, mates, etc), the price dropped to 132.900 €.
We are talking about more than 35.000 € on average, meaning, more than 16% discount. Which, I think is a clear evidence of the advantages when working with a professional, independently of the commission that this service includes, that normally -and this is an international data as well-between 3% and 6%.
As a matter of fact, -and thanks to that we are in a free market- anyone is free for buying or selling in the way that is more comfortable and fits better to its profile. So, the statistics are here, and objectively the results point clearly to the usefulness of working with a real estate agent; and far from being extra cost, it will be an investment that certainly will make us save time and money that we end up obtaining, thanks to his advising. Being this, every person that goes to the housing market is looking for, either buying or selling.