How agents home in on hints of a deal

By ANNE GIBSON

When house buyers get keen, their body language changes; they stand closer to their partners to talk and discuss questions, examine three main areas - bedrooms, kitchen and garage - and check that the kids like the bedrooms (so they don't complain later).

The imminent buyers usually ask questions about whether the dishwasher will be staying, what the rates are, what sort of schools are around, and check on price details.

Such behaviour is a dead giveaway for the agent, who can usually spot the body language and questions as quickly as a cheap house deal.

While the buyers are behaving like buyers without realising it, the agent is reciting the ABC mnemonic or mantra - standing for "always be closing". An agent worth his or her commission will know that most sales are lost by being too timid to ask for the order to buy.

Agents manipulate their language, depending on which party they are dealing with. If you are a buyer, agents might talk about your prospective home with all the associations of the warm fire and baking smells. You feel flattered and good. If you are a seller, the agent might call it a house or simply refer to it as "the property" to take emotion out of the equation, preparing you for leaving and maybe for getting less than you want.

These are just some of the secrets revealed in a new book on buying and selling houses.

Whether you consider real estate agents a necessary nuisance or a fine bunch of first-rate folk, you are likely to need one at some stage.

So agent turned adviser/consultant Andy Gilbert of Rotorua has written New Zealand Real Estate Secrets (David Bateman, $24.95), due out soon.

His aim is to take the mystery out of the business and provide a guide for people on both ends of the deal.

Gilbert's book is not like the ra-ra, how-to hype of another New Zealand author and real estate specialist, Dolf de Roos, an enthusiastic advocate of investment in housing, whose latest book is Real Estate Riches - how to become rich using your banker's money (Addenda, $32.95).

De Roos lives in the United States, but is contemplating returning to either Christchurch or Queenstown. Another busy New Zealand real estate and finance author, Martin Hawes, has also written a series of books on property investment, tax, family trusts and is the author of Save Money on Your Mortgage (Penguin $24.95). Hawes lives in Christchurch and has specialised in writing business books and articles.

Compared with the prolific Hawes and de Roos, Gilbert is the new boy on the block. His New Zealand Real Estate Secrets , to be released on August 10, is his first published work, although he is also dabbling in fiction and hopes to have more books published. But he started with an area he knew.

He is a former franchisee of Century 21 in Taupo and Rotorua and also working with Harcourts and Harveys in Rotorua. He has worked in real estate for 12 years - five as a salesman and seven as a sales manager, owner/operator, trainer and auctioneer.

Gilbert's thesis is that since nearly everyone comes in contact with real estate agents, people need a tool to provide them with information on how to choose one, and how to make sure the agent works for them.

He staunchly defends agents in his introduction, says any bad news about them is unjustified and "gives the media good copy on a slow news day, helping perpetuate the real estate salespersons' poor reputation".

The topics he covers include appraising the market, assessing a property's value, selecting the right way to sell a property, choosing the agent, preparing your home for inspection, dealing with offers, drawing up a contract, negotiating, closing the deal and financing options.

He also reveals that in the first 10 days any house is on the market, it will have attracted the interest of all existing buyers in that price and location range; after that, only new entrants to the pool will show interest.

Gilbert reckons only one out of 1000 buyers is not educated on prices. The other 999 comparison-shopped and knew what your home was worth. He could easily have added "before you did".

If you want to know the closing sequence routine which agents go through to give us that final little push to buy, read page 86.

The next page reveals the buyer mindset and how buyers change when they find something they really like.

Emotions progress from desire, to need, to want, to wanting really bad to simple gut-retching fear of loss. In the chapter Let's Get Down to Negotiating, Gilbert tells how agents get buyers to move on their price by asking certain questions which naturally lead them to offer slightly more than they intended.

He cites the example where a salesperson never asks the question which would result in the buyer saying something like "$200,000 tops" but instead asks "would you be prepared to go to $205,000?" The buyer says "nah, $203 is actually my top dollar".

Whammo. The agent knew the buyer only intended to pay $200,000 but already he or she has got another $3000.

Gilbert also reveals how agents minimise six-figure monetary amounts by knocking the important three zeros from the equation. He calls this making light of prices. But it has a deadly serious effect on all parties.

Gilbert strongly recommends against dispensing with agents, saying that trying to sell a house privately is likely to fail.

"Less than 0.5 per cent of all home sales are made privately. It can be stressful and time-consuming. There is considerable buyer resistance to dealing directly with owners."

He defines the difference between an agent and a salesperson. The agent has a licence to open an office and has at least three years' experience in the industry and has passed exams. The salesperson is self-employed, has to apply to the Real Estate Institute for a salesperson's ticket, is working on commission and can sell only through an agent's licence.

He notes the value of advertising. "How do you get your home to stand out? You put in a larger advertisement. Advertising works well. The downside is that if you want the larger ad, you have to pay for it."