Real Estate Agents Vs Professional Property Valuers, Who Really Knows Their Stuff?



The showdown continues!

For those looking to buy a house, sell a house, go to court with an accurate value of their house or tell a government agency how much their house is worth, a professional opinion is an absolute necessity. Property valuation is quite a complex science… and if you have already gotten a few quotes from property valuers, you may be wondering if you need a professional, or if you can get away with the ‘free’ version from a real estate agent. Today we pit the two teams against each other in the ring… who will be knocked out first?!

Professional Property Valuers – Their Strengths

Here’s why you can only use a professional property valuer’s opinion in court, in a bank and for government purposes.

Property valuers must be qualified: Before valuing any property, all valuers must have completed tertiary qualifications.

Certification and industry standards:Property valuers must have undergone a certification process, and their valuing techniques must adhere to industry standards – there is simply no way to get a highly unreliable valuation.

Predetermined factors, not opinion: Values for given properties are based on a set of predetermined factors applied to a time-tested valuing method. Real estate agents’ ‘valuations’ is based on experience and opinion.

Professional Property Valuers – Their Weaknesses

They’re the undisputed heavyweight in the property valuation-accuracy challenge… but they do have some minor drawbacks!

Cost: As with any professional service, there is a cost involved in having a qualified expert appraise the value of your property.

Real Estate Agents – Their Strengths

Real estate agents put up a reasonable fight in this challenge… but do they come out on top?

They’re free: This is the determining factor in many people’s decisions. Unfortunately, the allure of getting a service for free often costs home owners and buyers more in the long term. Undervalued properties will sell quickly, but the owners could have had so much more. Overvalued properties will sit on the market accumulating agent marketing fees and potentially tens of thousands of dollars worth of extra loan interest.

They’re on the front lines in a particular area: Real estate agents may have ‘qualitative’ knowledge that can complement the factual knowledge that dominates professional valuers’ opinions. For example, they may be able to give opinions on how long the property will stay on the market for at a particular value, the percentage of investors versus owner occupiers looking for property currently, etc.

Real Estate Agents: The Weaknesses

Unfortunately, in the accuracy stakes real estate agents simply don’t measure up to professional valuers.

Only salesperson qualifications needed: The minimum qualification for real estate agents consists of a two-week course, compared to tertiary qualifications for valuers.

The vested interest question: Real estate agents have a significant vested interest in the value of your property. If they estimate higher than market value, they get a bigger commission. If they estimate lower than market value, the property may sell more quickly and reduce their workload.

With the noted exception of the qualitative knowledge that real estate agents can provide, it’s clear that professional valuers provide a far more accurate representation of your property’s value. After all, if the banks, the courts and the taxation department all ask for professionals…

By: Mia Cusack

 Go to post page

December 24th, 2011 by admin

Realtor Marketing – Using New Technology to Automatically Generate Leads For Real Estate Listings



Internet marketing allows you to put all your lead generation efforts on total autopilot. With automatic lead generation you have more time to focus on turning your leads into paying clients. You want to spend more time with people who will buy homes using you as their real estate agent or people who list homes and will use you as their listing agent.

In this article I want to show you how you can use the internet to automatically generate warm leads that will turn into closing more deals for you.

Secret #1:

You have to really understand and believe how much good internet marketing can do for your real estate business. This way you’ll be sure to follow through to set up your automatic lead generation machine.

You already know that offline real estate marketing is extremely expensive, and doesn’t always work. Once you spend money it lasts only for a little while then you have to spend more money.

Maybe you will get a lot of calls after paying for advertising or direct mail, but then it will all be over and you’re faced with more expenses.

Secret #2:

With online marketing techniques it is not that way. If you learn the right way to set up your lead generation systems, you can get a continual stream of new leads in the form of traffic to your website. You get this traffic day after day which means you will have a steady stream of new home buyers contacting you day in and day out.

Secret #3:

Ask yourself this question: what internet traffic sources will bring you a continual stream of warm leads on autopilot? Any type of advertising where you have to make new posts, like Craigslist and other similar sites, do not generate leads automatically.

So you have to find and use the traffic channels that bring you new leads without any effort on your part. There are several ways to do this, and it’s most effective to use a combination.

Set up your automatic systems and let the internet help you turn your leads into customers.

By: Leo J. Vidal

 Go to post page

February 5th, 2011 by admin