Estate Agents and Selling Land
Estate Agency is one of the most unpopular professions with the general public. What often turns the public off is the "arrogance" of the Estate Agents.
What the public do not appreciate is that the Estate Agent is not marketing a common commodity such as a car (which are manufactured in many thousands), but is allowing you a chance of purchasing bespoke article.
Land is highly valued and commonly held in families for generations. Accordingly when land is offered for sale by the vendor it is often only grudgingly. If the land does not achieve the sale price required then the land is removed from sale (often with a thankful vendor).
It is therefore not surprising that when an Estate Agent is marketing land for a less than keen vendor he has little time for less than eager buyers. Land based Estate Agency is based on finding and devoting time to the few people who are seriously interested in purchasing the land and discarding the "time wasters". The Land Agents must therefore quickly decide which people are serious and which are "time wasters" - an arrogant attitude from the agent is often effective at scaring away the "time wasters".
Because land is so highly valued, the sale of land is often perceived by the land owning community to only be undertaken by "cash strapped" land owners. As such there can be a negative social stigma attached to land sellers. This problem is overcome by Estate Agents advertising land "Off Market". This is done by the land agents describing the land in the vaguest terms to just a few of their most serious land buyers. It is only when these buyers show a strong interest in the land that they are confidentially given firm details of the land. Selling land "Off Market" thereby avoids neighbouring land owners from ever finding out that the land has been marketed. The negative stigma attached to land owners who selling some of their land can be seen when you understand that up to 50% of all land sales quietly take place "Off Market".
Summary
- Land sales cannot be likened to a shop because every product is bespoke, to many it is not necessary to sell and there is no discernable recommended retail purchase price.
- The land sales industry is unlike any other because the vendor often views the land emotionally and irrationally as well as commercially.
So what makes a good Land Agent ?
- Strong buyer contacts within the marketplace
- Established and respected in the marketplace
- Good knowledge of land in the area
- A well founded and realistic land appraisal
- Good marketing of the property particulars and a well thought out sales strategy
- Timing
- Attitude
Dec 2004