What does it take to be an exceptional estate agent?

We watched Rightmove’s webinar ‘What does it take to be an exceptional estate agent?’ and have summed up the key points for you. Take a look at how you can go above and beyond to be more than just a great estate agent.

What is an exceptional estate agent?

Being an average estate agent isn’t good enough.

A common statistic is that prospective sellers only invite two or three agents out for valuation. So even if you’re the fourth or fifth best agent in your area, you’re still going to miss out.

That’s why it’s important to aim for exceptional.

Rightmove analysed data from 15,000 estate agent branches and conducted 50,000 secret shops by phone and email to assess levels of service.

For the purposes of the webinar, they defined an “exceptional estate agent” as being in the top 5% of estate agents in a given area.

They also identified four fundamental areas that determine an exceptional estate agent, based on what customers want.

Let’s look at these in more detail.

Property marketing

Marketing a property is about more than just sticking it on Rightmove and waiting by the phone.

Exceptional estate agents make sure that their listings are well presented and enticing. This includes:

• High-quality, eye-catching property photos
• At least five photos
• A floorplan
• A unique and well written description
• Tailoring the listing to the target market (e.g. “a perfect family home”)
• Accurate pricing (including reviewing and updating the price as necessary)
• Updating the listing every couple of weeks (e.g. changing the lead photo or amending the description)

Handling enquiries

How you handle enquiries makes a big impact on the way you are perceived by customers and can make or break a professional relationship.

An exceptional estate agent makes sure to treat all enquiries with care. This includes:

• Using technology to prevent calls from going unanswered
• Replying to emails as quickly as possible (preferably within 10 minutes)
• Using a customer’s preferred method of contact
• Personalising responses
• Thanking customers for their enquiry
• Sounding enthusiastic when answering the phone
• Asking about a customer’s current situation
• Confirming next steps
• Including contact details in emails
• Using call recording for staff training purposes

Securing a sale or let

While securing sales and lets is key to the success of your business, having a proven track record will help you to build trust and gain more clients.

An exceptional estate agent agrees 65% more sales than an average one. Some of the ways that they achieve this include:

• Building trusting relationships with customers
• Being picky about what stock to take on and only doing so at the right price
• Saying no to sellers with unrealistic expectations
• Speaking to sellers in person to explain a fall-through, why it happened, and what they plan to do to get it back on the market ASAP
• Being realistic and up front about timescales<.li>

Winning instructions

Exceptional estate agents win 30% more instructions than the average in their area.

Techniques that help them to do this include:

• Handling leads well
• Being consistently good at the fundamentals
• Demonstrating how they add value when someone contacts them
• Using certificates on Rightmove
• Showing how they do things better at every stage of the process
• Using exceptional care and attention to detail
• Providing a better service, allowing them to charge a higher fee

Elements can help you to become exceptional

Having a detailed, enticing property portfolio will not only help you to sell more properties but will show potential customers that you will provide a dedicated service should you win instructions from them.

We can help you to make your property marketing the best it can be and set you on the path to being an exceptional estate agent.

Our Image Enhancement service will make sure that your property photos are high quality, enticing and free from distracting clutter.

We also provide Floorplan Conversion and branded Video Slideshows to make your Rightmove listing stand out.

To try our services for free and find out just how much we know about helping agents to be exceptional, simply use code BLOG44 when you register.