Recently a client said to me, “I'm making this offer of £925k. I'm not going to be looking to increase it and this is my reason why: the news says house prices are coming down, so I shouldn't be paying any more than this.” He then went on to talk about mortgage rates, etc.

I thought, but didn’t say, but you're a buyer, right? You're bound to say that. Instead of fighting back, I simply acknowledged his reasons for making that offer – that’s always the first step in handling objections.

After I acknowledged his reasons, I asked him a question: “If I shared with you some data on the area that gives you a summary of the same size properties which are actually a lot older than this one that are being sold for more money, would that help you to understand the purchase value?” And he said, “Yeah that would be great!”

I shared the information, gave him what he needed. He took a look over that and then he realized that actually £925k was a very, very low offer

So the first thing I did was agree with him. To follow up, I gave him some information and asked him to come back to me in 3 days. We did that, and then he gave us his highest and final offer which was £975k – that's £50,000 worth of value I've just given my client.

My client’s expectations were also met because their property was on the market for too high a value in the first place. So in reverse I needed to give my sellers some data, and I needed to acknowledge their reasons for moving and make sure that they were really clear on their needs and motivation. We talked about their emotional need for moving, then I justified accepting the offer of £975k with data because at the same time in the same market there's information that sellers need in order to make the right decision.

As we’ve established, first you need to understand your client’s needs. Then you need knowledge. I’ve touched on that a little little bit, but let’s get into it more here.

How much do you know about your market? How much do you know about the number of properties that are available? The number of buyers per property? The history? About what the market looks like moving forward?

When you’re valuing a house, one of the worst things you can do is be too fixed on comparables. Why? Because comparables are historic. Yes, you can lean on them, but the comparable sale could have been in a market when there was absolutely nothing else on the market or when there were loads of properties on the market.

So instead of looking back, you've got to look at what it’s really like at the present moment. You’ve got to understand the knowledge for now. That’s what’s going to help you to bring that client the information they need. It will help you get into the emotion and establish what their decision-making process looks like.

So your knowledge, your data is vital. If you're talking to a seller, you need to know how many buyers you’re working with that are looking for a property like theirs. That information is really important because if there aren’t many, the price is a bit more of a challenge. If there's lots of competition among similar properties, that's going to challenge their price again.

This is the information that your clients really need to see – not you telling them what their price actually is. By the way, there's no estate agent I've met that is actually going to determine the exact value in any housing market. You can only give people a guide because the only person to really establish the value of any property is the ready and willing buyer. We've all heard that a house is only worth what someone’s prepared to pay. Well yeah, but it's also down to how crap the person was at negotiating with them in the first place. Did they have the knowledge? Were they able to share the information that gave that buyer the confidence and the reassurance to move forward?

Knowledge is power when it comes to managing expectations, but how you use that knowledge is key. That’s why know-how is point three in how to manage buyer and seller expectations.

How do you use data and knowledge? For starters, don't use it to intimidate people. Don’t use it to sound pretentious or patronizing. Instead, remember that your clients are unlikely to have the data and the insights that you've got on hand – in other words, what seems obvious to you, won’t be to them.

Since you have the information they need, share it with them. Then, ask them to give you their impression of what that information shows them. That's how you use the information to manage expectations – you give them data, and then you help them learn how to use it.

Let’s return for a minute to my mentee calling me, asking me “How do I tie up this deal?” The first thing I’d say to his client, or any client, is, “I don't want you to accept an offer that you are unhappy with, okay? My job here isn’t to tie up a house sale at a value that you don't understand and you're not happy with.”

I’m giving you the same advice I gave my mentee, you’ve got to take a stand as an agent. It’s about you helping your clients to make an informed decision by using information and emotions to manage expectations.

The three areas you need to work on to manage both buyer and seller expectations are: understand their needs, have current knowledge and data about your market, and know how to help your clients use the knowledge you share with them.

Work on these three areas consistently, to be ready to work in any property market. If you have any questions for me or feedback to offer, please comment below. Finally, make sure you subscribe to this blog and to my YouTube channel to get the information you need to scale your career or estate agency without the sleaze.