Placing a property in several real estate agencies was normal when there was no internet. Each agency operated locally, and it was necessary to advertise the property in different agencies, in different parts of the city, or even in other cities or countries, so that the buyer or tenant could find it in the portfolio of the agencies they entered.

Currently, no one needs to enter an agency to find a property, it is easily found and filtered by the various digital media. There is an excess of information, and it is crucial to know how to capture the attention of, or select what each person is looking for. What adds value in real estate mediation is the way the property is presented, both the image and the information transmitted, the perception of the concept, the identification of the right public and, above all, the consultant's communication skills. Their approach, empathy, rigor, and the security they inspire in people, at a time as relevant as the purchase or sale of a home.

To hire, or not, a real estate agent?

Always. It is not advisable for two parties to transact directly with each other, for the following reasons:

· In most cases, there is a high emotional pressure associated with the property, which does not allow the seller and buyer to evaluate and make decisions with the necessary discernment. There is a risk of being able to regret it, for fear of missing an opportunity, or of missing it at all. On the other hand, there may not be this fear and the deal is not done under optimal conditions;

· In general, people communicate awkwardly, especially in negotiations. It is very easy to “take an argument personally” and start a power game, which will distance the parties instead of bringing them together;

· Still on clumsy communication, the fact of knowing your property like nobody else does not mean that you will be able to transmit everything that, for a potential buyer, is important for their decision making. The buyer will not have the same confidence in the seller that he has in a good mediator, so he will not ask all the necessary questions, much less share his motivations and needs, for fear of having a negotiation disadvantage;

· Lack of experience in managing a leasing process, or buying and selling, could complicate the deal and generate a high level of anxiety for the parties. It is necessary to prepare documents and carry out the necessary technical checks, which implies knowing and investing in specialized professionals, such as lawyers, architects, engineers, credit intermediaries, who, in addition to photographers, are included in the service of a good mediator;

·The careful presentation of a property involves a certain neutrality, which owners cannot achieve. Each person has their organization standards and personal tastes in decoration, so a good mediator helps in preparing the property so that it can be photographed and presented when visiting potential buyers;

·Last, but not least. When buying or selling a property in today's market, you need in-depth knowledge and experience to determine the price for which you will sell, or rent. Which implies being inside the market, dealing with people and transactions on daily basis, for some years now, and having access to market analysis platforms. The right price is halfway to a successful sale, within the right time frame. In a market with high demand, such as in Portugal, on average a well-evaluated property should sell in about two to three months.

Then we come to the question of exclusivity. After the exhaustive list of details to be taken care of before, during and after the purchase, sale, or lease of a property, would it be possible to entrust this function to several consultants? Never. Instead of having someone by your side, defending your interests, you would have to deal with their pressure. I would be paying to take a loss.

The lack of trust in a consultant or agency is not a reason to hand over your most valuable asset to different agencies, hoping to compete with each other to transact it faster. They won't and it's not what they want.

No consultant will invest out of pocket in high quality promotional resources, lose hours in a correct market assessment, making contacts, qualification, traveling, visits and negotiating, knowing that others are doing the same and at any moment the business could be closed, and all your work and time will have been for nothing. What he does is the bare minimum: he places the property on the website, waits for someone to contact him and expends as little energy as possible, being dispersed among numerous open properties, until he is lucky in one of them. On the other hand, as soon as this consultant identifies a potential opportunity to close a deal, he will do everything to achieve it in the shortest possible time, so that competitors do not get ahead of themselves. It will weaken your negotiating position, won't it i defend the price, but rather convince you to accept the offer you have, even if it is not the best for you. It is necessary to be calm, firm and knowledgeable, for a consultant to be able to advise the client not to accept a proposal and to be patient to wait for the buyer, or property, with the right proposal. Something that the open consultant will never do, for the reasons mentioned above. The open consultant doesn't work for the client, he works for himself and his agency's goals. The service is mediocre and can only be satisfactory the worse are the other consultants who raised the same property.

It's worth spending a few weeks researching and interviewing consultants, asking the necessary open-ended questions until you find one you can trust. It's not wasted time and not always the recommendation is from someone who will work well for you. Try to understand why the recommendation was made, whether based on personal experience, or whether you are just a friend or acquaintance. Do you find paid ads from consultants or agencies that invest in marketing to position their brand, instead of promoting their listings? What does that say about the priorities of the agency?

If we want to create a conscious way of working with consistent quality, it is necessary, first, to focus neutrally on what works and what doesn't, for employees and customers. Without this exercise, no company will go beyond mediocrity. That's why LOBA only offers its customers an exclusive service. Contrary to what is heard, exclusivity is not given by the client, it is given by the agency. A client who cannot choose a consultant and agency is a person without authority, who does not identify with the other and who will enter a fight of egos, of those who know more and do not open the game to be helped, with whom it will be very difficult to establish a relationship. trust that you so badly need.

At LOBA, the investment is ensured by the agency, freeing the consultant from the availability and decision to do so. On the other hand, there is no competition at LOBA and no consultant needs to waste time trying to attract clients. Clients are the ones who come to us and are assisted by the consultant who has the greatest availability or profile to serve that specific case.

As a team, we act “one for all and all for one”. We help in the business of those responsible for them, without interest, and we ask for help in those for which we are responsible, regardless of whether the commission is shared. This is one of the Great Principles, which allow each element of the team to make decisions autonomously and prevent that whatever their decision is, it is taken according to what is most convenient for them.

This integrity allows us to be flexible and adapt each response to what works best, respecting the essentials and not an established way of doing things. It's what allows us to reinvent ourselves and continually learn from experience, and it's what has made us an authority in the real estate sector, especially in the exclusive service to the buyer.