One business mentor I follow says that if your clients have to get in touch to ask you a question, then you aren’t doing a good enough job. As a service provider, she says, I should be anticipating my clients' questions ahead of time and answering them before they’re asked.

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This made me think!

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There actually is one question I am regularly asked by clients which if I was doing an excellent job, they wouldn’t need to ask.

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This question is…….

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“ Is it safe for me to transfer this booking deposit when nothing has been signed?”

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So I thought I’d answer this question in advance for any of you who are an existing or potential client of mine.

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Whether you are buying or renting a property, you’ll be asked, as soon as terms are agreed, to transfer a booking deposit to the estate agent.

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At this point you probably won’t have anything from the agent other than a verbal agreement and a written request from the agent for the transfer of a booking deposit.

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Not unreasonably, most of my clients are a little anxious about doing this. Their thinking usually runs along the lines of “This is a few thousand euros I’m being asked to transfer to an agent I barely know. I don’t have anything in writing. How can I be sure it’s safe? “. This is a fair enough question.

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Here’s how I explain the process to my clients.

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When you are buying or renting a property, you and the estate agent are engaged to some extent in a dance of trust. The dance involves each of you taking a step of trust at different stages of the deal.

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Here’s my view of the steps in this trust dance..

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Agent’s step:

The agent trusts you enough to say to his/her client that you, out of all the people who want to buy or rent the property, are the one who the agent trusts to go the full distance and complete the deal smoothly. By putting his/her trust in you, the agent runs the risk of you backing out of the deal and leaving the agent in a tricky position with his/her client,

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Seller or Landlord’s step.

The seller or landlord trusts the agent enough to take their advice and agree to sell or rent his/her property to you. The seller or landlord runs the risk of the agent being wrong.

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Buyer or Tenant’s step

The buyer or the tenant trusts the agent enough to transfer a booking deposit to the agent’s client account. In making this transfer, the buyer or the tenant happily risks very little. This is because of the highly regulated nature of the estate agency business in Ireland whereby agents are required to keep their client bank accounts separate to the agent’s business accounts. Agents are required by the government each year to provide audited accounts and be fully insured against any fraud or malpractice. The number of rogue agents, making off with a buyer/ tenant’s booking deposit is virtually nil. The buyer or the tenant can also be assured that this deposit is fully refundable if the deal doesn’t go ahead.

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Agent’s step

The agent, while waiting to receive the booking deposit from the buyer or the tenant, trusts this buyer or tenant enough to cease showing the property to any other interested parties.

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Etc etc.

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As with all deals, trust has to be what comforts and reassures all parties to the deal until the need for trust is eliminated through the provision of paperwork. Things can’t all happen simultaneously, there is always going to be a need for trust for some length of time.

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Have you any questions about this? Let me know. I’ll do my best to answer. Trust me ! :)