Download Man or machine? - Association of International Property Professionals

FEATURE The role of agents
Words | Peter Robinson, MD of the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP)
Man or machine?
Do agents still have a role, or will online
searching deal them a fatal blow?
www.opp-connect.com
D
24
igital companies promoting
their portals and social
media to the property
industry often consider their
products the most important part
in the client value chain. Always
highlighted is the widespread and
ease of internet usage and the
lower cost of using digital media.
Whilst the digital world clearly
has a vested interest in promoting
online, do they have an entirely
valid point? Is it really a case of man
versus machine and, if so, who will
end up triumphant?
In this post-industrial age, when
jobs get commoditised as fast as
possible, the only good ones left
are the ones that must be done
by a person, not a machine. This
means done by someone figuring
things out; done by an individual
willing to put themselves on
the line and to do so expertly,
It is for agents to
become the lynchpin
in this increasingly
digital age – not just
another cog
effectively and honestly. In the
property business, that means
working with a good agent.
Key Note UK research
(conducted in July 2013), backs
this up: despite the growing
importance of the internet in
recent years, nearly two-thirds of
those interviewed said they would
visit an estate agent’s office if
they were looking to buy or rent a
property in the UK. This indicates
that public perception of estate
agents as qualified professionals
(at least in the UK) has remained
unchanged since 2010. Can the
same be said of those agents
based in destination markets
selling international property?
With online property searches,
the speed and presentation of the
work is the quality of the work. It
is for agents, then, to become the
lynchpin in this increasingly digital
system – not just another cog.
NOVEMBER 2013
Due diligence
Be visible online
Head of Rightmove Overseas,
Shameem Golamy, has some
interesting data to share from
his recent market report based
on over 3,000 visitors to the site:
“93% of future buyers say they
will find their agents online, but
not necessarily their property”.
So agents certainly need to have
an authoritative online presence
it seems. Shameem continues,
“I think the role of an agent has
never been more important.
Buyers are now much more
adept at doing their own research
and the concept of ‘freemium’
[published advice available for all
on the internet but signposting
the agent as the expert author] is
particularly interesting.
“Buyers are more likely to buy
from an agent who helped them
in their research phase as a result
of the trust and rapport that has
built up, as well as being more
likely to recommend their services
to a friend or colleague.”
The freemium is now in
widespread use in many different
Why do some
buyers of overseas
property throw their
caution to the wind
at the airport?
industries, particularly online
where digital educational and
gaming content, for example,
can be created cheaply to bring
customers into their world, to be
monetised later.
According to Rightmove
Overseas, market demand in 2013
broke down as follows:
Second home 51% – of which
36% were still in a research phase
Emigration 36% – of which
33% were still in a research phase
Investment 13% – of which
41% were still in a research phase
With such a significant amount
of buyers still in a research phase
there is a good opportunity for
agents to connect through expert
information – perhaps through
freemiums, as Shameem suggests.
Even buyers ‘sure’ of their market
approach and not actively seeking
further research can be reassured
when presented with expert
agent opinion and use this as
the deciding factor with which to
choose an agent.
www.opp-connect.com
Much information online comes
with few quality checks. Emerging
Real Estate (ERE) Director, Paul
Harrison, said, “Before we look at
any developments – and as part of
the due diligence we do – we look
at all the information that would
be available to any potential
investor. We stress-test values and
rental demand and we know our
locations well.
“That way, when our investors
do their own checks, it lifts our
credibility and the trust they place
in us. I can’t think of any situation
where a client would simply rely
on the internet before making any
investments. Trust is a massive
part of the process and having a
knowledgeable agent to take you
through the experience is still
critical to a potential investor.”
Yet, at the Association
of International Property
Professionals we do receive
sheepish calls for help from
buyers who have bought without
doing all their homework –
and are now regretting their
impulsiveness. These include
people who should know a lot
better including, in the last year, a
property journalist, surveyor and
an international business owner.
Why do some buyers of
international property throw
caution to the wind at the airport?
Are they overly reliant on internetonly research to reinforce their
prejudices?
The AIPP Member Disciplinary
Panel thankfully only meets
around four times a year, but
such cases of buyers being rash in
their decision-making contributes
to the AIPP member complaints
we receive. Many of these
are groundless due to buyers
realising, albeit too late, that
they have executed a purchase
without being 100% sure of the
appropriateness of the property
for their needs.
This unfortunately and unfairly
adds to the poor reputation of
the industry in some quarters.
Whereas, for example, UK
financial advisors must fact-find a
client’s wants and needs, produce
a risk profile and determine the
appropriateness of a financial
investment for them, property
sales agents are under no
compunction to do so (although
most successful property agents
do take the time to understand
what it is the buyer thinks they
want and then establish what they
need, using their local market
knowledge). I suspect some
agents can identify with their
doctor when a patient presents
their self-diagnosis (researched on
the internet) as fact and merely
needs the doctor to issue the
prescription they have already
decided they need!
25
FEATURE The role of agents
Professionally researching,
authoring and publishing
such information is quite an
undertaking and there are some
very poor examples of these
around – short on content and
quality, but big on marketing and
with a ‘venus flytrap’ approach to
lead generation that can be offputting to buyers.
The best freemium examples
take a slightly detached,
independent and editorially
neutral stance and sometimes
enlist the expertise of freelance
property writers to help pull the
content together.
If one may be immodest for a
moment, that is what the AIPP did
with our own Buyers Guide How
to Buy Overseas Property Safely –
which is free to download at
www.aipp.org.uk.
By adding such guides to your
own website you also increase
the likelihood that buyers will find
your company through internet
searches, as Google ‘spiders’ like
such educational content (and
can read PDF format), giving your
Google rankings a boost too.
Aspirant market expert agents
should certainly look at the work
The best freemium
examples take a
slightly detached
and editorially
neutral stance
of The Overseas Guides Company
and that of the Global Property
Guide for inspiration and possibly
contributing content.
www.opp-connect.com
Generation rent
26
Buyers are also seemingly
now more inclined to get ‘on
the ground’ for an extended
stay before approaching an
agent. Sitting on a panel at the
recent A Place In the Sun Live!
property show this September
in Birmingham, UK, I addressed
around 100 buyers each day over
three days. Approximately 30%
A realistic interpretation of the client-agent interface
confirmed to me they would be
renting a property in the area
they were looking to buy over an
extended period and seeking out
local expertise before taking the
plunge into ownership. Compare
that with buying property five to ten
years ago.
Some prudent caution is
seemingly being exercised as the
market starts to pick up again in
Europe. Agents take note – perhaps
look at the property lettings
business in your area and bring
buyers into your world that way?
As the international property
market starts to tick up again
in Europe, it is the authored
experts who are going to do best,
creating an authoritative human
link in what can be a bewildering
purchase chain for overseas
property buyers. But there are
now so many touch-points of
communication for the overseas
trade to master (FB, Twitter, blogs
– if useful and timely, Pinterest,
Vine, YouTube etc) that to be
highly effective in all of them
now seems a pre-requisite to
thrive and survive. But what you
say is increasingly important, so
should you be ‘expert’ or perhaps
say nothing? An increasingly
sophisticated buyer is going
to judge you harshly if you are
a lightweight and ‘sales first,
knowledge second’ outfit.
Certainly, agents that appear to
add little value in the digital age
of empowered consumer insight –
driven by digital connectivity – will
be passed over. Product is now
ubiquitous, promotion of such
often vanilla and interchangeable
with many other companies.
What makes you different is your
expertise and your passion to
share that with buyers – they
know what you do, now tell
them why you do it and how that
journey taken with them will be
a path better travelled than with
your competitors.
There’s no getting away from it...