Article written and provided by Jo Eccles, Managing Director at Eccord, for Beacon Gainer, private wealth advisory services group.
“I was on a property tour with a client late last year and, as we pulled up outside a house we were doing a final viewing of, I ran him through the profile of the other buyer who was also circling the house and reassured our client that we had presented him to look much better than the competing party.
Our client – a successful British investment banker – was surprised as he had no idea the level of etiquette or behind the scenes communication that went on, in order for him to be viewed as the preferred buyer.
This is often the case with buyers and tenants – they are unaware that their every move is observed and judged, as is everything they don’t do. There are so many intricacies that go into the buying and rental process.
For example, we have just acted for one rental client who is one of the leaders in his field, but he was very aggressive in his approach and we had to work incredibly hard to protect him from putting off the agents.
Of the 12 properties we showed him, 5 were off market, which we achieved through our carefully nurtured relationships in the industry and by persuading our contacts that he was the dream tenant. He will absolutely behave himself once he has moved in, but had he been representing himself, we know a number of the agents or discretionary landlords would have refused to rent to him.
In the past, we have gone as far as telling our clients what to wear, what to say or volunteer during the viewing, and what not to say. The property industry is people driven so behaviour and perception is absolutely critical.
Not only does the estate agent need to like you and trust you, but it’s important for the landlord or seller to want to do business with you. This has become even more prevalent following events of the last 12 months, where compassion and humility have found a place in the world of commerce.
We’ve had many instances over the past 14 years of our clients being favoured over competing parties and us agreeing lower offers than were on the table from others, because our client gave a better impression and the landlord or seller simply preferred our position, our approach, or trusted us to get the transaction done with integrity.
The buying client who I was explaining this to was fascinated to hear how we had presented him. How we had kept in touch with the agent every few days updating him on what was happening behind the scenes at our end: what our client was thinking, what extra due diligence we were carrying out, how many other houses were still in the running, what was happening with our client’s sale and so on.
The competing buyer had done several viewings, as had we, but they hadn’t kept the agent updated; they would view and then go silent, and then return to the scene a week or two later. As a result, the agent and seller had more faith in us and was more inclined to entertain an offer from us – even if it was less than the competing who they perceived to be unreliable and not as committed.
An experienced search agent takes pride in the many ways we can add genuine value to our clients, and handling and navigating the etiquette is a key part of that.
We are paid to correctly read situations, adapt our approach and navigate our clients accordingly. Achieving the best and most competitive outcome is not always about exerting openly aggressive tactics, in fact quite the opposite is often much more successful.”
Company background: Eccord specialises in the acquisition and management of residential property in prime central London.
For 15 years we have been trusted by private clients, family offices and international companies to provide residential property search, acquisition, relocation and management services.
Our founder, Jo Eccles, set up the company in 2006 with a genuine belief that anyone looking for prime residential property should have expert professional representation.
Our award-winning team has since successfully acquired 350 properties and manages a portfolio of more than £1.5bn of rental properties and private homes.
Our service is built on honest communication, detailed analysis and discreet representation to secure the best outcome for our clients.
Building on our own love of fine property, we continue to believe that in London’s competitive property market it is essential to have expert representation you can trust.
Jo.eccles@eccord.com
