WHAT AGENTS SHOULD DO
by Neil Jenman
Article written and provided by Neil Jenman from Jenman.com.au . To see the original source of this article please click here. https://jenman.com.au/sell-it-to-bob/. Neil Jenman is Australia’s trusted consumer crusader. He can support you, all the way, from choosing an agent who will get you the highest price guaranteed to when your removalist comes! You get an unprecedented level of total support. All for free. To find out more visit jenman.com.au
Reading Time 3.5 mins
Most agents are lazy.
All they do is sign up sellers and then persuade them to pay for advertising.
Once advertisements appear, the agents wait for buyers to show up. If no buyers show up, the agents do two things. First, they ask you to drop your price (if the price is low enough any home can be sold at any time). And second, they ask you to spend more on advertising.
Most agents do nothing that most sellers cannot do for themselves.
Indeed, thousands of sellers are stung for upwards of five thousand dollars for advertising when they list with agents. But if they didn’t have an agent, they’d be paying closer to five hundred dollars. Most sellers are unaware of this fact.
In such cases, you would honestly be better off selling without an agent. Other than standing at the door waiting for buyers, most agents do no selling at all – at least when it comes to buyers.
The only selling done by most agents is making you, the seller, believe you need an agent.
In most cases, you don’t.
So, unless an agent can do something that you cannot do, why hire an agent? Why not “sell” your own home?
You can easily place an ad on-line.
You can wait for buyers to show up.
No one is more qualified to show your home than you. No one knows your home as well as you.
As agents know, homes sell themselves. So, it’s worth repeating: Unless the agent can do something you cannot do for yourself, why hire an agent?
HOW AGENTS LURE SELLERS.
Most agents are constantly advertising that they’ve got “buyers waiting”. They boast about their successful “marketing campaigns” where hundreds of people saw a home – either at the open home or online or both – and this means they have hundreds of buyers on their books.
Yes, buyers on their books. All waiting to buy your home.
One real estate company in Melbourne promotes: “If you choose to sell your home with Jellis Craig, you will have access to more than 2.8 million potential buyers and investors.”
Wow, that’s great. Surely, they’d never need to ask sellers for money for advertising to find buyers. And surely none of their sellers would lose thousands of dollars if their home failed to sell. What kind of agent can’t make sales with nearly 3 million buyers on their books. Ooh-la-la.
Given that, across the entire Melbourne area, around 93,000 homes are sold every year, then Jellis Craig has 30 years of buyers on their books.
Few agents make such fantastical claims.
But all claim to have buyers on their books – before you list with them.
If this is true, why do agents ask you to pay thousands of dollars to advertise to find buyers?
Because they are lazy that’s why.
SELL IT TO BOB!
BOB stands for Buyers on Books. All agents have buyers on their books. But most agents are too lazy to call those buyers. Much easier to convince you to pay to advertise and buyers will call the agents. Indeed, as all agents know, many buyers who call the agents from advertisements are already known to the agents.
Don’t reward agents for being lazy.
Make it clear that if their main strategy is to use your money to advertise then wait for buyers, you can do this yourself. And for much cheaper in advertising costs and without paying thousands of dollars in commission.
Tell agents directly that you expect them to do something you cannot do for yourself.
Tell the agents, “I want you to sell my house to Bob!”
Some agents will look puzzled. Others will think you’ve got a friend called Bob who wants to buy your home and they’ll handle the sale while you pay them tens of thousands of dollars for doing nothing. Agents love to get paid for nothing (Just read the fine print in their Listing Agreements).
But no. Bob is the buyer they have now. The buyer on their books.
And make sure you don’t fall for the line: “We contact all existing buyers,” when all they do is email thousands of people on their database, most of whom never open their emails.
You want an agent who makes the effort to pre-qualify buyers. And then an agent who goes to the extra effort of speaking to buyers and saying something such as: “Hey, we have listed a lovely home. I think you’ll love it.”
You need an agent who works hard and who’s enthusiastic about your home. True selling is the transference of enthusiasm.
But these days – especially as the market gets tougher – many sellers are fed depressing and negative information from agents who are complaining that “there are no buyers around”.
Rubbish.
According to Cotality there were 39,747 homes sold in Australia in September 2026. Yes, that’s down on September last year.
But there are still more than 9,000 homes sold every week.
TODAY’S MARKET
Sure, prices are also down and predicted to fall further. There is a strong argument to suggest that the longer you wait to sell your home, the less you’ll get for it.
But if you’ve hired a lazy agent – one whose main strategy is advertising, then waiting, then asking you to spend more on advertising and then pushing you to drop your price, you’d almost certainly be better off without an agent.
Of course, the best strategy for any seller is to find an agent who does not entice you with the “buyers waiting” pitch and then leave you financially devastated if they don’t sell your home.
You need an agent who charges nothing until your home is sold.
You need an agent who’s enthusiastic. One who says, “The market is tough, but I am tougher.”
And most of all you need an agent who’s willing to sell your home to BOB!
