Choosing Your Advocate: What REALLY Matters

  real estate landscape is shifting, with buyers and vendors increasingly looking to expert advocates to help them achieve their real estate goals.

10 years ago, buyer and vendor advocates were a service few really knew about. Advocacy was viewed as a niche offering of value to only overseas or regional buyers and sellers, or those who were extremely paranoid about process of transacting real estate.

How quickly attitudes have changed. Buyers and vendors – even the most seasoned of property investors – now engage skilled advocates despite their own market knowledge. There’s a myth that only inexperienced purchasers or frightened vendors use the services of advocates. This is patently untrue; investors now recognise that expert advocates offer them a distinct competitive advantage.

What is true is that not all advocates are alike – just as not all estate agents are the same. Some are highly skilled with deep community and industry connections, and some are journeymen who prey on their client’s perceived fears or blind spots. The more amateur the advocate, the more likely they are to tell awful tales of devilish estate agents ripping off buyers, and the more often they’ll rely on having accreditation with industry bodies. I noticed one such blog recently, where an advocate suggests that buyers and vendors should only engage advocates who are REBAA members (for those playing at home, this is the Real Estate Buyers Advocate Association).

To put my thoughts plainly: this is a crock. As a profession, we are governed by the REIV and the Estate Agents Act alone. Whilst being a member of the REBAA isn’t deleterious, it does not give you any additional, magical negotiation skills or additional compulsion to act ethically. And to be frank – being a member of a particular industry body doesn’t make you a better-connected or more highly skilful real estate professional. Years in the game and deep knowledge of the areas you enjoy expertise in make you an in-demand and successful advocate who consistently achieves outstanding results for your clients.

To learn more about what really matters when appointing a buyer or vendor advocate, visit the Infolio Property Advisors website. And word to the wise: it’s fierce passion and industry smarts that makes a difference to buyers and sellers … not the amount of club certificates you might have on the wall. #MicDrop