However there are some signs that may be changing, with the results of a recent survey showing a relatively high proportion of people have had a positive experience with an agent recently.
The CoreLogic Consumer Perceptions of Real Estate Agents surveyed people who had recently sold their property using an agent in an attempt to gain a better understanding people’s perception of the skills and behaviours of those in the profession.
According to the results of the survey, 66% of respondents had either an excellent or good experience with an agent, while 20% described their recent experience as average.
Ten per cent of respondents described their experience as poor, with another 4% describing it as disastrous.
More than two-thirds of respondents, 68%, said they would recommend the agent they had used to family or friends.
While there may be some good news for agents in those results, the survey also identified skill areas where vendors would like to see their agents improve.
The most common are for improvement centred on agent’s ability to follow up, where 15% of respondents said there needed to be an improvement.
That was followed by negotiation skills, which 12% of respondents identified a need for improvement, while 11% were critical of their agent’s customer service skills.
While many people may judge an agents performance on the ultimate result – the final sale price - CoreLogic’s Kylie Davis said a high sale price didn’t guarantee people where happy with their agent’s performance.
“Agents who received a better than expected price for their vendor, but failed the key skills of customer service and follow up received very poor reviews,” Davis said.
“Our take away from the survey were that agents who are truly serious about improving their performance can do so easily if they are genuine, do what they say they will do, and demonstrate to their clients that they have their best interests at heart,” she said.
