2-Way Honesty Highway in Real Estate

If there is anything more important than doing your research into the industry, it is to pick an agent that you can trust and rely on for your real estate decisions.

This may be tricky, but it does pay to take your time in selecting the right partner to suit your specific needs. Surprisingly, it is not what you may want to hear but it’s the truth that will guide you to make the right decisions.

Building strong relationships in real estate is to both manage outcomes and expectations. A trusted real estate agent understands that integrity is not maintained by simply painting a bright picture that may mislead the client. The truth is that clients keep coming back to someone who keeps their promise to stand with them in the trenches, and who is not afraid of hard work to help them achieve the desired outcome.

Honesty and trust go hand in hand in any relationship. If the partnership with your agent is not rested on trust it will leave a heavy strain on your relationship. Added to the pressures that you already have with your property requirement an additional strain will only lead to … wrong or delayed decisions that could make or break the deal. The agent must always be able to disclose the truth … be it about the market and the trends that affect your decision to buy or sell or the actual valuation of the property concerned. To do this the agent must always be up to date with the latest market information and trends.

He must be knowledgeable in the area and the price bracket that you are most likely to operate in. The agent must be able to meet your actual requirements genuinely without trying to impose their own. He must pay keen attention to detail on your needs and show clear interest and capability of understanding those needs.

It is also common to notice some realtors using aggression over assertiveness when trying to form relationships. Assertive is not aggressive. To be assertive is to pose the right questions and communicate accurate and relevant information with confidence. An Assertive realtor is better remembered because they bring in solutions to meet the specific needs of the client.

As with all other relationships, honesty in real estate can be built only if it flows both ways and if the communication line is kept open at all times.

From the start of the relationship with an agent, there is a heavy strain on the information shared by the realtor, mostly accumulated to the ‘valuation’ of the property. This is the greatest and single biggest challenge faced by realtors every day. Under-appraise and the realtor may lose their listing and over-appraise could cost them their reputation and trust.

A good real estate agent depends mostly not on his sales or PR skills but on his reputation to build a strong relationship with his clients.

It’s best to choose an agent who can be honest and transparent about what they can do for you even at the risk of losing the job rather than misleading you on areas that they cannot contribute to. 

Thanks for LinkedIn - Thushari Sumanasekera.