Why are owners so afraid to use one real estate broker to sell or rent their property?

If I had a penny for every time I had this discussion with an owner, then I would have enough to be able to quit real estate, hang up my three piece suit and sip cocktails on the balcony for the rest of my existence. 

I have been in real estate for little over 14 years. I bought my first house at the age of 18 and I have grown my portfolio of real estate from London to the U.A.E by building strong relationships and networking along the way.

"Repeat business, referrals and loyal clients"

I now manage a handful of high net worth clients and continue to advise, guide and review their property portfolios without having to fight my way through their doors to pitch my services. 

"The flood gates have opened"

The Dubai real estate market has become flooded with young inexperienced agents trying to make a quick buck in this buoyant market whilst having no regards to actually getting to know their clients. 

The amount of recruitment agencies specialising in real estate is nearly overtaking the actual number of real estate agencies registered in Dubai. 

People from all over the globe are coming to Dubai to get a slice of the real estate pie and to better their lives in one shape or the other. 

However this is creating a snowball effect of brokers fighting for the top position and doing anything they can to get the sale or getting that client to use them over another agent. 

"A test of morals and ethics"

I want to share with you a story which hopefully will give you an idea of the challenges ethical brokers face with the inexperienced or down right desperate brokers. 

I had a client call me to rent an apartment urgently on the Palm. I generally only deal with sales however I felt obliged to help as she was referred to me from a good client of mine. 

Needless to say I treated her like any other client regardless of the ticket value, I asked her my qualifying questions and ascertained exactly what she was looking for. I showed her two apartments the same day which met her criteria. I also showed her one apartment which was a curve ball to give her a option totally outside her specifications. This is something I do often as I like to give my clients choice rather than just trying to shoe horn them into a unit. 

Surprise surprise she absolutely loved the third apartment and offered the full asking price of the apartment the same day. 

During my time with this client, I built rapport, I learnt about her family and most importantly we had fun, even though this can be a stressful time for a client. 

She left feeling reassured and knowledgeable about the area. 

A few hours later I had a distressed call from her telling me that she is feeling guilty as the "other broker" whom she was dealing with before me is now telling her that she can get the same apartment. This "other broker" was giving her the guilt trip that she needs the deal to pay her rent and was begging her to go through her rather than me. 

Now this can be a common problem as brokers feel the pressure and want to make all their running around pay off, after all most brokers are on commission only and don't have the luxury of a basic wage. 

The fact still remains that this "other broker" didn't go that extra mile and came up short at the last hurdle.

I have always conducted business with my gut feeling. If a deal doesn't feel right then I will simply walk away and move on to the next one. I've used this through out my life and it hasn't failed me yet. 

So I was in a slight dilemma and I was put in a very awkward situation. 

The fact that this "other broker" being rather desperate made me uneasy, so I told my client to go with her heart and I am here if she needs me to close the deal for her.

I think you know where the story goes from here. 

The client did call me back and signed the contract through me. Not only that she referred two of her friends all looking for the same service. 

The moral of the story and the conclusion I came to is that there is always going to be the good, the bad and the ugly in each profession. Although I don't consider myself to be drop dead gorgeous, I do however know that I do not fall in the category of the bad and the ugly. 

Taking all this into account you can see that owners are faced with the difficult task of deciding which broker to use. 

Broadly speaking owners feel the best solution is to cast their net far and wide to get as many different brokers as possible to sell their property trying to get the best possible offer.

In theory this may look like the best option. However owners need to consider getting close and personal to one broker and to treat them like their adviser rather than a sales man/woman. 

All investors buy real estate with a common interest. They either want capital appreciation or they want a good long term ROI (return on investment).

Most investors are scrupulous with the figures to get the best ROI. This is built into their DNA hence why they are investing in the first place.

However why should this differ when it comes to choosing a broker. If they gave as much thought to getting the right broker to manage their property then they would make much more money at a quicker rate. 

Forget about the market going up or down.

Forget about the Expo 2020.

Forget about supply and demand.

Forget about the rental prices going down.

And forget about that friend of yours which thinks he knows all about the real estate market but has never actually bought, sold or rented a property in his life. 

Moral of the story...

If you are looking to buy, rent or sell a property in Dubai and want an open, honest and trustworthy EXCLUSIVE broker who will work hard to meet all your requirements then look no further. 

Here is my email, I look forward to hearing from you.