At first glance, the remuneration of a professional real estate agent is steep. On closer inspection, however, it quickly becomes clear why a professional real estate agent is always worthwhile.
The idea of handing over the property to a cheap estate agent and supposedly saving a lot of money is obvious. However, if you take a closer look at the business model, it becomes clear - the turnover must inevitably be achieved through the quantity of real estate. Here, quantity comes before quality, i.e. as much as possible. Fast "house selling".
Anyone can sell a house quickly, but not everyone can sell a house at the right price. This is where the wheat is separated from the chaff. Unfortunately, it happens time and again that properties are valued far too low in order to bring about a transaction as quickly as possible. The owner suffers an immense loss as a result, even if he hardly pays any commission.
Or, the owner is promised a far too high sales price with a low fee. In the back of his mind, however, the agent already knows that he will have to lower the price fairly quickly after signing the mandate in order to be able to sell the property. The high price promise only serves to land the sales contract.
A serious estate agent knows that the first thing to do is to set the right property price. Not too low, but not too high either. Because prices that are too high end up leaving too little money in the wallet, which has also been shown by several empirical studies in various countries.
The results of the studies are astounding: in price tenders that were 20 per cent above the market price, the bidders achieved only 85 per cent of the effective value, which for a property value of CHF 1 million is a Loss of CHF 150'000.- for the owner.
With a premium of 10 per cent, the actual purchase price achieved was on average 97 per cent, which is still a loss of 30,000 for a property worth CHF 1 million. In addition, the study showed that the marketing period was much longer for properties with inflated asking prices than for those with realistic prices.
What sounds controversial has a lot of merit. A price that is too high already deters interested parties from even viewing the property. An offer price that is too high thus has a negative effect on demand. If potential buyers stay away, sellers usually lower their prices too much and suffer losses as a result. In addition, prices that are set too high at first and fall later give the impression of a dubious seller. Good, solvent buyers react sensitively to such behaviour.
The right selling price is one of the most important issues in property sales. Professional real estate agents use various calculation models for this purpose, which others are unable to do simply because they lack the necessary knowledge. The calculations are supplemented by many years of experience and regional market knowledge.
Conclusion: those who seek the advice of a professional not only minimise their expenses, but also stand a good chance of covering their costs via a better sales price.
