1) What is the most common hiccup you encounter when trying to find the perfect home for a client, and what is your typical approach to overcoming it?
The most tricky problem is often to match the expectations of quality the client had set in his mind with the budget he or she has. When it comes to properties, we are talking about substantial amounts of money. No matter if it is a million or a hundred million dollars, for the buyer, the amount always seems huge because in most of the cases this is the biggest purchase of his or her life time. Based on this fact, clients expect to get the best they see, and consider that provided their paying a lot of money, they deserve it. But very often these "best" properties are far above their possibilities. It is at this point that you have to understand the priorities of the client: is it the location? Is it the area size of the property? Is it the high-end finishing? Or is it may be the view?
[Once you find out], your chances of making a successful sale [become] very high.
2) Real estate agents are expected to be absolute experts on their respective regions. What steps do you take in order to ensure you know positively all that you need to in order to keep your clients well informed?
In order to keep our clients well informed we have to keep ourselves very, very informed.