Why A Sole Mandate Is The Solution To Selling

Firstly, what is a sole mandate?
A Sole Mandate is an authority entrusting the sale of your property exclusively to a single agent or agency.

Unfortunately, owners often choose an open mandate when marketing their homes, believing that the more agents they have working on their property, the sooner they will achieve a good price for their house. In fact the reverse is often true, as no agent likes to spend time and money on a property they might not sell.
Under a sole mandate, both the agent and agency are contractually bound as well as personally motivated to market your home within the period of time laid out in the agreement, and secure the best possible price.

Homes of Distinction owner, Jonathan Broekman, says that advantages of sole mandates are clearly apparent:

1.   An agent will be prepared to spend more money marketing and promoting the property. No agent is motivated to spend a large amount of money on advertising when they are sharing a mandate, but when they are “guaranteed” rights to a sale they are happy to invest in its promotion.
2.   An agent will give their full focus and effort until success is achieved – agents are always conscious that if they are not successful within the sole mandate period (usually 90 days), they could lose the mandate altogether. The sole mandate system forces the agent to be completely focused on a few properties instead of pursuing as many leads as possible. 
3.   As there is no risk of another agent pressuring sellers to accepting a lesser offer, the price obtained on the sole mandate system will be the highest achievable at that time and in that market. The targeted planned marketing is a process that your sole agent will consider in order to get the seller the best price, as opposed to it feeling like a race to the finish line, regardless of price because “some commission is better than no commission”.
4.   Sole mandate agents are better able to keep track of offers and honestly advise buyers if their offers are unlikely to succeed, as they are solely dealing with all traffic.  Sellers also avoid any possibility of “double commission” claims.
5.   Sellers find a sole mandate less stressful.  Firstly, all potential buyers are pre-qualified by the one agent.   Secondly, they will only be brought to the house within a few strictly defined times, which is not only less invasive to seller’s privacy, but far more secure to the property or estate as there is only one set of keys out of the seller’s hands and access is controlled.
6.   Only having one For Sale sign outside your property and one online listing maintains exclusivity of your property, and buyers will realise that the seller isn’t desperate to negotiate.  It also implies that sellers are committed, which strengthens the relationship for all parties.

For more information on Homes of Distinction, please click here.