The primary aim of all estate agents' training has to be the increase of the agent’s ability to be sensitive and sympathetic to the client’s needs.
In appointing an estate agent, property sellers, Clarke says should ask not only what relevant qualifications the estate agent has, but also what training he or she has received from their group.
This is according to Tony Clarke, Managing Director of the Rawson Property Group, who says all too often estate agents are accused of being insensitive and there is perhaps nothing clients dislike more than the feeling that the estate agent is focusing on achieving a sale and not on their needs.
He says the culture at the Rawson Property Group is non-exploitative and the primary aim of their agents is to always focus on the people and not the sale. The group’s training courses emphasise this attitude further by promoting the belief, ‘we sell homes, not properties’. This, he says, is the only attitude that will ensure sustained success.
Clarke says training that genuinely results in estate agents adopting this approach has shown to be pivotal to their achievements and to building up a base of satisfied clients.
In addition, he says the obtainment of all estate agent qualifications is all important in the Rawson Property Group and something they take seriously.
It has been said so often, but it needs to be said again, says Clarke. “The estate agent is in many cases assisting the client with the acquisition or disposal of one of the biggest investments of his life and any form of self-interest on the part of the estate agent is out of place in so important a transaction.”
In appointing an estate agent, property sellers, Clarke says should ask not only what relevant qualifications the estate agent has, but also what training he or she has received from their group. The client should also ascertain how long each course lasted and how regularly estate agents have to attend.
“There will of course always be exceptions but in general the client can expect better service from an estate agent whose group has provided him not only with intensive introductory courses, but also with ongoing professional development courses thereafter.”
