The question on everyone’s mind right now is, WHAT is going to happen with buyer agents? Will they go away? Will it be a race to the bottom competing for business? Will home buyers just ditch the agent and start doing everything on their own?
Based on my 16 years in the business and working with top teams and brokerages around the country, my personal opinion is that buyer agents aren’t going anywhere. Buyer agents are a critical part of a smooth and successful home sale transaction. They provide an essential service, and the demand for that service isn’t going anywhere.
Let’s take a look at why.
Why I Don’t Think Buyer Agents Are Going Anywhere
As we all know, starting in September 2024 (as of the writing of this article) sellers will now need to be actively involved in the decision making around offering compensation to a buyers agent. Home buyers will also need to be actively informed and involved in deciding how their buyer’s agent gets compensated. Something that previously buyers may not even have thought about. The buyer agent compensation may come all or in part from the seller, but it’s no longer a standard function that the seller automatically pays for a buyers agent. The fear in the industry right now is that this change in commission structure may cause buyers to ditch their buyer agent altogether and just opt to work directly with the sellers agent.
Why I don’t buy this argument is that, if it were true, buyer agents would already be gone. Home buyers RIGHT NOW can already purchase a home without a buyer agent, but the vast majority overwhelmingly choose to work with a professional. This new commission structure isn’t going to change that.
Think about it this way, a home purchase is the largest financial transaction that most people will conduct in their entire lives, and the vast majority of people won’t feel comfortable handling it on their own. So they need and want a buyer agent. AND…a seller’s agent can not adequately represent both the buyer and seller at the same time. As a long time listing agent myself, I have been involved in many transactions where I needed to only represent one of the parties in order to do the best job possible, so not all listing agents would even want to represent both parties.
How Can Buyer Agents Be Successful with this New System
I think what we’ll end up seeing is buyer agents conducting buyer consultations just like a listing agent conducts a listing presentation. There will likely be more price competition among buyers, but the positive side of that is, if you can effectively demonstrate your value, you may be able to earn a higher commission than you could previously.
Only time will tell what the actual and long term effects of this new change will be, but true business professionals will find out how to adapt. Those who can change their practices to match the new system will be successful, and those who drag their feet and waste time worrying, will fade away.
In the meantime, what I do know for certain is that, until this thing stabilizes, the surest way to stay in business and bring in commissions is to take listings and work with sellers.
“List to Last”
The saying “list to last” has been around since before I got into the real estate industry. Its meaning is simple: real estate agents who want to enjoy long and successful careers should focus their time, energy, and talents on acquiring listings. Now, I don’t know exactly what the new buyer agent system will look like, but what I can guess is that listings are going to become even more valuable than they were before, as many agents who worked mostly with buyers start going after more listings.
It’s crucial now more than ever that you are concentrating your efforts on new listings. Basically, if you aren’t taking four to five new listings per month, then you have A LOT of opportunity right now to improve.
The question is, how?
You Need to Up Your Real Estate Sales Game
Taking more listings ultimately comes down to improving your sales skills. There are a multitude of factors that go into converting a prospect into a paying client. You need to actually find the prospect, then you need to call them and have a real conversation without overly relying on scripts, you have to handle their objections, present your unique value proposition, know when and how to close, know how to follow up, know what to do if they’re not ready to sell right now, and much more.
It’s a lot, but if there ever was a time to really put your head down and put in the time and work to take your real estate sales to the next level, this is it. You need to take more listings AND you need to up your game for buyers–both of which require sharp sales skills.
Start with Our Skills Assessment
At Smart Sales Coaching, we’ve found that there are four core skills that primarily drive your sales. They cover your ability to enter a conversation, direct it effectively, overcome obstacles and objections, and then logically close the prospect. These four real estate agent skills are:
- Introductions – How well you enter the conversation
- Objection handling – How you handle objections
- Value proposition – Why a buyer or seller should work with you
- Logical close – How likely a buyer or seller will actually meet with you
If you’re having trouble on your calls, it can be difficult to pinpoint where exactly you are falling short. That’s why we’ve created the Core 4 assessment. Completed over Zoom with one of our professional sales trainers, this assessment tests where you’re at for each of these four real estate agent skills and is completely FREE.
In addition to showing you how well you’re hitting each of the four sales skills, you’ll also receive actionable tips to work on and improve each one, so you can start taking more listings.
Don’t wait. Listings are more valuable than ever, there will be more competition, and you need to make sure your skills are where they need to be. Plus, this assessment is 100% free.
Click here to learn more about the Core 4 assessment.
Plus, if you want to check out our Conversion University Bootcamp training program and really take your career to the next level, click here.