Real estate agent and businessman Paul Vujnovich has come up with a plan he says will put sellers on to the right sale agents.
After 20 years of starting up businesses, from a window cleaning operation to a manufacturing company exporting flavoured syrups, he has set up findmyrealestateagent.co.nz.
But Properazzi property commentator and former realestate.co.nz ceo Alistair Helm says he is unsure what value Mr Vujnovich's site adds to the market.
He agrees with the importance of choosing the right agent, but says the new site is not massively useful and he would have liked to have seen help for the buyer also.
However, he agrees the site flags a “real need in the market for vendor help”.
The website gives vendors the chance to enter their suburb and find blurbs about agents who sell in their area.
There is a list of 21 questions in four categories: expertise, customer service, negotiation and marketing.
Mr Vujnovich says sellers can chose what questions they want answered and fire off an email to the agent, sit back and wait for a response.
“You’ll be able to gather a huge amount of information based on who responds, how quickly they do, whether they answer your questions honestly and openly or are trying to duck and dive for cover, and what their grammar and spelling is like,” he told NBR ONLINE.
There is a catch – those agents who have a profile and who can be emailed questions have paid for the privilege. It costs just on $100 a year for the complete package. Other agents have simply had their name and office number linked to the suburb in which their office is located.
Mr Vujnovich says people have been left in the dark about choosing an agent and have made a selection based on other listings in the area, a telemarketer or whoever has left a brochure in the letterbox.
He estimates signing the wrong agent could cost up to 7% in lost profit and can be a disaster in the current market.
The latest Real Estate Institute figures show a slowdown in listings and a tightening of the market as buyers face limited offerings.
There were 5653 unconditional sales nationwide in September, an increase of 418 compared to the same time last year, and a fall of 6.3% compared to August.
The national median house price increased by $1000 to $371,000 in September.
Source: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/believe-it-or-not-website-bc-131
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