What makes a GREAT real estate sales consultant?
Not all agents have a background in sales, and at Harcourts Holmwood our agents have diverse professional backgrounds, all of which form a kaleidoscope of knowledge, creativity, and work ethic. While sales are a big part of the role, there are common personal attributes and expert qualities that many of our agents share.
Our pro-active, honest and reliable agents are the real packhorses of the industry, wearing many hats at various phases of the process; they are a buyer’s representative, a business manager, a consultant, a negotiator, a marketer, an open-home chauffeur, a lawn-mower and an over-arching guide to ensuring informed decisions are made in an ever-changing market.
Agents form such strong ties with their clients through the real-estate process that often they become friends, going on to sell multiple properties through existing links.
Some of the key ingredients we’ve learnt make a great agent are below:
Problem solvers:
- Coming up with creative solutions to problems or issues and having a clear purpose and mind-set is imperative. Also, it is crucial to be constantly surrounded by positive reinforcement. Surrounding themselves with positive people increase chances of success.
Self-motivated:
- Having the drive to control your professional success and be your own boss is a common trait shared by top real estate professionals. To be successful in real estate requires a high degree of self-motivation, ambition and smart decision making.
Honesty and integrity:
- This is a valuable one. Professional reputation is crucial to a long and successful career in real estate. The REAA have clear guidelines to ensure real-estate professionals as well as buyers and sellers are protected with regards to honesty and integrity.
Enjoy the hustle:
- Being a great real estate agent requires great work ethic. You must have the tenacity to pursue every lead and the hustle to aggressively market your clients’ properties in order to facilitate success. Sometimes this may place you outside your comfort zone. At Holmwood, we have regular training sessions and seminars that will help to grow your confidence and knowledge.
- This may seem obvious, however having a deep interest in property and architecture goes a long way! Some of our agents are qualified builders and drafts-people, while many also help with styling their clients’ homes ready for photography and the sale process. A sound interest in the industry is always noticed, knowledge and interest level is apparent in conversations, caring passionately about your industry goes a long way.
Be engaging!
- This follows on from the previous point: Have an engaging personality! A good real estate agent does not just sell properties – they sell dreams, they sell aspirations, and they sell themselves. It’s important to show your true self. People will respond well if you are enthusiastic, have a great attitude, are personable and honest, have confidence in your abilities, and are interested in genuinely helping them to realise their real-estate goal.
Pay attention to your clients as people:
- A successful real estate agent is attentive to the unique needs of their individual clients. Being organised, following up leads, communicating well, and paying attention to their needs is crucial for a long and fruitful relationship with a client.
Understand the local housing market:
- Know how the market stands locally, but also how it reacts to wider situations and unforeseen events, which is now especially true!
Being a network builder:
- Successful real estate agents have an extensive but curated network of contacts within the market they serve. This list of connections should include strong relationships with other real estate agents, mortgage specialists, and all the other players in the real estate industry, such as appraisers, home inspectors, right down to gardeners and electricians!
Be ready to constantly upskill!
- Continuing education and professional development will always assist in any trade or profession, real estate is no exception – in order to stay at the forefront of your industry it is important to stay one step ahead.
Real estate is like any career at the end of the day, you get out what you put in. There is a level of investment needed (time, energy, drive and dedication) to make any business venture successful, but if you are passionate about real estate and helping people realise their dreams it can certainly be extremely rewarding.
To find out how you can begin your real estate career at Harcourts Holmwood, click here
Holmwood have announced another Gala Auction on Thursday 8th February from 6pm at our auction rooms (397-399 Ilam Road).
Special marketing offers and further details available through our team of Sales Consultants. Don’t miss out! Contact us today.
Find everything you need to know about our cute penguin friends here!
Wild in Art is bringing a second sculpture trail to Christchurch this summer. In partnership with Presenting Partner, Harcourts and with the support of many other sponsors and funders, Pop Up Penguins will give residents and visitors a fresh opportunity to discover and delight in all that makes Ōtautahi special.
The public art trail will include 50 large and five smaller penguin sculptures, sponsored by companies and decorated by established and emerging artists, along with 65 little penguins, decorated by schools as part of the Pop Up Penguins Learning Programme. This is a great opportunity for all of us to get out and about in our city this summer and be surprised by the creativity of not only our artists, but also the children from local schools who have been involved in the creation of some sculptures. The designs and their implementation is truly amazing.
The sculpture trail will run from 29 November – 31 January, download the app (Pop Up Penguins 2020) to find all the information you need. With the app you can collect penguins, unlock rewards, find out more about the designs and the artists, and view your trail progress. You can also download the trail map here.
After nine weeks, out and about in Christchurch, the street sized penguins will be auctioned to raise awareness and much needed funds for Christchurch’s very own Cholmondeley Children’s Centre. So, if there is a special penguin that steals your heart, register for the auction scheduled for Tuesday 16 February 2021 and you could be the lucky owner once the summer trail wraps up. But until then we all have the opportunity to enjoy the penguins, challenge ourselves to find and photograph as many as we can along the trail, and learn a bit more about issues threatening penguins including climate change.
Pop Up Penguins is guaranteed to bring a smile to all our faces after a challenging year for our community, NZ and the world.
Holmwood penguin – UNDERCOVER
This not so little penguin has been selected and sponsored by the Holmwood team. We are very proud to be part of this wonderful event, after literally months of work by the organisers, artists and schools. The talented artist in charge of bringing ‘Undercover Penguin’ to colourful life is Jo Ogier. Jo is passionate about the natural world around her. Her work reflects a strong conservational and ecological tie with nature, as well as her deep love and connection to the environment.
You can find our new favourite and cute summer friend in the Merivale Mall. So, if you are around visiting, we would love to see some of your photos. Just tag our Facebook or Instagram account or add the hashtag #harcourtsholmwood or #holmwood.
Activity Book: If you visit Undercover at the Merivale Mall, make sure to scan it with your phone. This will give you a code stating you have visited it and you can pick up the Activity book from any of our five offices. Your kids will love it! Something fun to do over the holidays.
Dance like a penguin COMPETITION
Because these friends are just too cute and we cannot avoid waddling every time we talk about them, Harcourts Canterbury is running a ‘Dance Like a Penguin’ competition. So, get your happy feet out! There are 5 family passes to the International Antarctic Centre to give away. You just need to send in your best dance/waddle like a penguin video to be in to win one of these awesome prizes (entry for 2 adults and up to 6 children along with a $60 café voucher). Message your video entries to Harcourts Canterbury Facebook page. Video entries close Sunday 13th December so invite your penguin colony to your place and get out filming your waddling!
You can read the T&Cs by clicking here.
Harcourts’ South Island Regional Manager, Jim Davis, comments on the Christchurch real estate market.
With the release of the latest REINZ property market data for the month of October, it is likely the comments I will make around the report will come as no surprise to anyone. The current buoyant state of the property market is a hot topic across all media outlets and there is no doubt our market has reacted quite differently from what was expected and predicted by the commentators just 6 months ago. But with the underlying strength and the hype that is developing around our market now, there are very few commentators who would pick it is going to change much in the foreseeable future.
In a nutshell, property is in huge demand right around the country with almost every region experiencing either a record median price increase, a record number of sales or a record minimum days on market figure.
Looking first at the national monthly results, the median sale price is recorded at $725,000 for October 2020, is in comparison to a recorded median of $605,000 in October 2019.
The total number of sales recorded across the country in October this year is the largest October result recorded for 14 years and the highest monthly total in the last 53 months.
The recorded days on market has dropped nationally to 29 days which is the lowest recorded figure in 17 years. When we look at all this, there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that there is huge pressure on our housing situation across New Zealand.
Here in Christchurch the sales figures results reflect what has happened nationally. While the 755 recorded sales in Christchurch isn’t a record, the number is right up there. Our days on market figure is 28 days which is slightly shorter than the national figure and our median is now a healthy $$526,000 – a new record high.
It is reported that close to a quarter of all property sold in NZ was sold by auction in October, here in Christchurch where we lead the way in auction culture, I suspect this figure could be a lot higher. In the case of Harcourts figures for Christchurch, we had a huge listing month throughout October. This is in fact the biggest in the last two years and in our case over 45% of our listings were listed as auctions. Love them or hate them there is no doubt that auction is the simplest and fairest way to sell property in a market like this. When there is so much buyer interest in the marketplace, the ability for someone to transparently see who they are bidding against and as a buyer it gives you the ability to make a conscious decision as to whether you are prepared to offer more than the last bid. We have lots of feedback from happy clients who say this method of sale is better than the “smoke and mirrors” perception of other marketing methods.
So where to from here for the market in Christchurch and in fact in New Zealand? There is no doubt that the commentary and rhetoric is changing from the media commentators. The feeling is that we are not in a bubble. The comments definitely suggest we are heading into a sustained period of price growth and increasing buyer interest from the existing market. While some of this past buyer activity has been typecast as people having a “fear of missing out “FOMO”, I believe there is in fact a much stronger underlying basis. The expectations long term have changed so that when the world gets back to a little more normality, perhaps borders reopen or space is available in quarantine facilities etc, then we will see the “brain gain” back into New Zealand from the returning kiwis and their families. Talk is now that over the next few years we could see as many as 250,000 kiwis and families looking to beat the rest of the world to our door. If this prediction is in fact true or even close to reality, then our current housing market will not be slowing down any time in the near future. Even if it’s not true, have no doubt the pressure from a large number of other people from around the world to get to the safety of New Zealand will be huge.
If you are wanting to get into the market for the first time every indicator says now is that time. If your local market is outpricing and outstripping your ability to save, perhaps look further afield and consider the possibility of staying where you are currently but purchasing a property in another area to rent out. This way you can dip your toes in the water and get that start.
