You have no doubt heard about position, position, position and how that is the be all and end all in real estate. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Sure, position is important but it is only one part of the successful real estate story.

I was called to a property this week to try to help figure out why it hadn’t sold. The house has been on the market for over 90 days, it is in a great position and has been through an extensive marketing campaign.

Position: a big tick!

Presentation: first class!

Price: well not too far off the mark in my opinion!

What’s left? Why hasn’t it sold?

Well there is another ‘P’ and that is performance - agent performance.

When an auction doesn’t sell, its not the fault of the auction process, it is generally because the agent doesn’t know how to carry out the process.

It is a bit like having an unskilled mechanic work on a Formula 1 car. It has an engine but unless you know how to tune it, it’s not going to run very well. Just because he is a mechanic doesn’t qualify him to fix any car.

I think the entry point for real estate agents is too low. Someone with no experience can sit a course that runs for a few days and focuses on the forms that need to be filled out and at the end of the course they are give a certificate to act as a salesperson and market someone’s greatest asset.

Agent performance, especially in the area of negotiation is the key in this type of market but unfortunately it so often comes down to the agent who can ‘sell himself’ the best to the property owner.

When I dug a little into the property I was called in to help work out a solution and get it sold, I found that the agent had been selling for less than a year, was great at making promises but totally unskilled at negotiation.

Maybe higher qualifications and fewer agents might see better agent performance and more satisfying results for the real estate buying and selling public.