MAKELAARSHUIS HELMONDSleeping estate agents and why a small agency is often better
Keep walking calmly. If you run, you stumble. For years that was my motto in the estate agency business. In a market where everything has to happen fast, where numbers seem more important than attention, care is increasingly falling by the wayside. And that is exactly where things go wrong.
A house that turned out not to be a house
I once received an instruction to sell from a gentleman who was convinced he owned a house. When I saw the Kadaster map, it turned out the plots had not been divided. A little later he told me that he paid a monthly amount for things including the exterior paintwork. That looked very much like an apartment right (appartementsrecht). The selling agent had mentioned nothing: no apartment right, no fractional share (breukdeel), no owners' association (VvE) documents. Nothing at all. If we had not been alert to this, both seller and buyer would have been in breach, with potentially major financial and legal consequences. And this was not a small agency, but one of the largest in that town.
You can see passion straight away
The problem also lies in attitude. In estate agents who chew gum during a viewing, or who sit down at the kitchen table and say: have a look around, if you have any questions I am here. At that moment, the passion for the profession has gone. Selling is not a side issue; it is the service a client pays for. You do not sell a home just by being there, but through enthusiasm, knowledge, commitment and genuine attention.
Why we want to know everything
Why do you think we want to know everything about a seller? Not out of curiosity, but out of responsibility. There is nothing wrong with the house, you often hear, until it turns out afterwards that the neighbour tries to rival the Rolling Stones on his drums every evening. These are not details; these are things a buyer needs to know and that an estate agent should report, to prevent disputes and claims.
Small agency, big responsibility
Fortunately, there are many estate agents who do their work with care, more good ones than bad. But both seller and buyer need to stay alert until the right estate agent is by their side. Someone you can trust one hundred per cent, from the first conversation to the transfer at the notary. Often that is not the biggest agency, but the agency where there is still time, where people still listen, where quality matters more than volume.
Saving or earning
The question is not whether you can save a thousand euros on commission. The question is whether you are willing to pay a little more for peace of mind, certainty and often a considerably higher sale price. My motto stayed the same all those years: do you think we are expensive? Just wait until you hire an amateur.
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