Real estate agents urged to be consultants of the industry

Managing director of Orel Ghana has urged real estate agents to be the experts in the industry. According to Richard Mantho, the current perception that house-hunters have about real estate agents can only be changed if agents see themselves as consultants.

“One of the biggest investments is to buy or rent a property and we, as agents should be credible in our dealings. It’s a customer’s recommendation that will get you more clients, however, we should move from being the showing-of-property type of agent to becoming the consultants.”

Mantho revealed this during the second Agents Education Series organised by real estate portal, Lamudi.

In her presentation on turning online leads into sales, Managing Director of Lamudi Ghana advised agents to desist from the practice of asking potential customers about their budgets when they interact for the first time.

“Never ask a customer what his budget is when that person calls you the first time because that puts customers off. The first question to ask a customer who calls for the first time is to describe the properties they want to buy,” she told the agents.

Over the years, real estate agents have been perceived to be unprofessional in their dealings with house hunters and this has led to the negative perception about agents.

According to Mantho, most agents are seen to be unprofessional because they lack the needed skills and structures to run their businesses and to such agents. He further advised such agents to work under larger brokerage firms because of the prestige and the trust that comes with it.

“Let’s network and learn from the experienced ones in the industry. Be under a broker who has an office and has right structures in place. That is the way to go as a start-up,” he admonished.

The Lamudi Agents Education Series is organized to train real estates agents and improve their professionalism in their business activities. It takes place at the Lamudi office at Abelemkpe and the final session for the year will come off on December 11. Agents who successfully go through the training will be presented with certificates endorsed by Lamudi. This entitles such agents to key benefits such as special mentions on the Lamudi website.