When choosing an agent, focus on strategies. Strategies are most important here. The size of the sign, which websites you are going on – it’s just details for later.

A friend told me a short time ago how his company had just changed accountants. They felt their accountant was not saving them enough tax, so they went to another one. Very quickly, after looking at their operation, this second accountant showed my friend how to save another 100k in one year

Now the interesting thing was that this second accountant’s office was just around the corner from the first one. The two accountants actually went to the same university, they did the same degree and learned the same stuff. But one was able to save them 100k more than the other. They had the strategies to do this, you see.

They interpreted the situation and came up with different strategies and ideas to save money. Selling your house is the same. All agents can put a sign up. They all have them. They can all get you on the web, but what we need here is strategies – ways of doing things that maximise your home’s potential in whatever market you are in.

Here are some of the strategies your agent should be employing. How the agent deals with existing buyers. This is a vitally important strategy. Following on from that, whether they are able to run a property preview, in which they advertise the property and invite all their existing buyers to a pre-marketing open day. This can be done very quickly and, in some cases, the property sells on that day. When to start the campaign? The best strategy is to launch it on a Monday morning. Believe it or not, people are all at their desktops looking for new listings. Must be while they’re having lunch, eh?

Auction.

Auction is a strategy that should be at least discussed, especially if you’re in a buyer’s market. Whether the agent believes high-profile or low-profile, it doesn’t matter. What is the strategy behind it? Whether to market with a price or without. What’s the strategy behind it? The main thing is that any agent you’re talking to needs to be able to talk all these strategies through, or you may miss the best one to get you those top dollars.

I’ll explain more about these strategies in upcoming videos.