What You Need to Know About Real Estate Agents in Tel Aviv And Didn’t Know Who to Ask
THE BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH A REAL ESTATE AGENT
The longer I work as a real estate agent, the more I am convinced that my profession should do a better job in educating the public about real estate agents.
Few home buyers and sellers really seem to understand how real estate agents work, and if you casually ask others what they know, you’ll find yourself hearing all kinds of myths.
Real estate agents can make or break your deal, and you owe it to yourself and to your financial future to understand how agents work in order to seal a deal through. Here’s an insider’s guide to everything you need to know about working successfully with your real estate agent.
One of the first questions you’d need to ask yourself early on the selling or buying process is, do you really need an agent or are you better off doing it yourself?
Here’s my thought: if you’re not experienced enough, meaning you’re not in the business of buying or selling homes (!) working with a real estate agent can not only shorten the process for you, but make it a whole lot easier.
And here are just a few reasons why:
FOR SELLERS:
Apart from having to deal with the emotional aspect of the sale, selling your home successfully on your own has a lot to do with your network and list of potential buyers who’d be interested in seeing your home first. Unless you have a solid network of buyers readily available to purchase your apartment, your chances of reaching out to the right buyer audience on your own, is low.
One of the main benefits of working exclusively, is knowing that your agent operates with a list of qualified and interested prospects. There’s nothing worse than having masses of people tramping through your home who have no intentions of buying it.
This also means that you limit the number of people you have to deal with, while at the same time allowing an increase in the number of sales personnel working for you to bring in qualified buyers. It is much more than representation by just one person. It puts into action a whole network of professional real estate brokers who will be interested in your property for their clients, and who will already have numerous prospects lined up.
Nothing beats the services of a team of skilled, experienced sales people who can keep the doors of communication open between interested buyers and yourself.
FOR BUYERS:
Your real estate agent is your most trusted adviser. He has the key to open the real estate market for you in your preferred location, not only with relevant listings but with a whole list of professionals and important information. This is especially important if you’re a foreigner as you may not be accustomed to the way things are done here in Tel Aviv, or in Israel for that matter.
Your real estate agent could (and should) educate you about the buying process and share industry intelligence and market trends with you, and his people and negotiation skills is where he is most accounted for.
Tel Aviv offers a long list of real estate agents operating in and around the city, and finding just the right one might involve some solid work, but once found, it’s up to your real estate agent to handle the entire process from start to finish, while at the same time eliminate any stress and hassle involved.
Once you’ve hired the right agent for the job, the most important thing you should do is let him work. Keeping an open communication is paramount and you should agree up front on how often your agent should keep you posted. You don’t need to speak every day, and most certainly don’t assume he’s not working if you haven’t heard from him in a couple of days. Once in every seven to ten days is good enough.
Your real estate agent should keep you posted regularly on marketing efforts, inquiries and most importantly on feedback from prospects during viewings. Don’t rush to conclusions if you haven’t received an offer after a couple of weeks.
Selling real estate takes time, and there’s a lot to do with timing, pricing, location and other features that can affect the length of time the sale can take. If time has passed by and your agent has not yield any results, then this will be a good time to reevaluate. A good 6-8 weeks should be a good indicator in evaluating both your agent’s efforts as well as matching your apartment to the reality of the market.
Given your real estate agent has kept you updated regularly, by this time you should have a solid picture on the impression your apartment has had over prospects, and come to more profound decisions in readjusting the price. Perhaps you might even consider a slight upgrade to your apartment for a faster selling process. Your agent should also keep a close eye on any similar listings in the area to keep your apartment competitive or at least at market value.
Pricing is the first step in any real estate sale and knowing how to price your apartment right is key (!) for the entire sales process.
Pricing too high or too low can most certainly affect the sale, and know that there’s a lot to consider prior to naming your price, such as location, size, features, timing and trends. Your agent is much valuable at this stage, as he should be able to give you a realistic price evaluation on your apartment based on recent sales in your area.
Agents normally start off their marketing campaigns at the higher range of the price scale, simply to get a feel on how the market reacts, and as it’s very common to negotiate, it is also expected that your agent should carefully calculate the range he has for negotiating.
Working with buyers is a completely different ball game, as most buyers don’t work exclusively with just one agent. As they have the need to see as many apartments as possible, they’d like to keep their options open.
If you’re a first time buyer in Tel Aviv, you should seek out a handful of real estate agents that can cater to your preferred location and apartment type. Reach out to those who you feel that can be a good match, and being in a foreign country, this often means a lot of online work involved on your behalf. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, and with real estate agents this means that buyers often reach out to agents offering relevant listings to their search criterias. That is definitely a good start, as at the end of the day a buyer is looking for an apartment to purchase, but I always advise that buyers also look for real estate agents that provide guidance and information.
Good quality pictures, broad description of listings and knowing where the apartment is located in relevance to nearby amenities, is equally important. Topping that off with guides, market reports, trends and any additional information that is available to you, will only make the decision making process easier.