In the old days, meaning five years ago, it made sense for a seller to engage multiple agents.
More seller agents meant more buyers, which in marketing lingo meant more marketing reach.
This was true when homes were sold by word-of-mouth and advertised only in print mediums.
The seller was limited to those who read the classifieds and people in an agent’s circle of influence.
Of course the agent’s circle of influence depended on the individual agent. Some could reach out to a few potential buyers while other agents couldn’t find a single one.
Sellers adhered to the idiom “throw everything against the wall and hope something sticks.”
This method had a huge disadvantage in that engaging multiple agents meant there was little to no relationship between the seller and each agent.
In some cases, having multiple agents made it difficult to have a coherent market strategy.
In other cases, this led to issues like misrepresentation of the home, the price or the seller by one or more of the multiple agents, which in turn led to disgruntled consumers and broken deals.
Smart phone and tablet applications are changing all this and making engaging multiple seller agents old-fashioned.
This is good for the consumer, the buyer and seller agents, and the industry.
Software applications have integrated Singapore’s residential property market onto a single digital platform consisting of multiple advertising and workflow channels.
Just like you can use a remote control to flip through hundreds of television channels, an agent can use SRX Property’s Agent ConnectTM to upload your listing to multiple advertising channels in one action, including SPH Classified, Facebook, SRX Circles and Agent Connect (an agent-only mobile multiple listing system, the consumer app SRX Home Search, and national property portals STProperty.com.sg and SRX.com.sg.
By integrating digital platforms with print mediums, SRX Property can provide your agent with tools to manage the marketing of your listing to consumers and other agents across the nation.
As soon as an agent uploads your listing, he or she instantly receives a list of statistics regarding the reach of your advertisement. These statistics include how many people will receive alerts notifying them of your listing.
As your agent markets your listing in this digital ecosystem, she will see the number of views and can reposition your listing to the top by improving the quality of the listing’s presentation.
In addition, the agent can use tools within Agent Connect and SRX Circles to reach out to targeted agents for co-broking or purchase and schedule an SPH Classified in seconds.
Finally, it is easy for your agent to reach out to agents with buyers and schedule home viewings using free messaging on Agent Connect.
In other words, the agent no longer relies on word-of-mouth. Any agent using Agent Connect has access to the market instantaneously.
This means that marketing and finding buyers are much, much more efficient than in the days of paper only. It is fast and easy for your agent to market and co-broke your property across multiple communication channels and agent work systems.
As a result, a seller and her agent can develop a proper relationship that will lead to better quality listings, presentations, and the transaction of the right home at the right price.