Most commercial enterprises, including those in the real estate industry, are primarily focused on maximising profits. In contrast, our focus is on offering buyers and sellers the greatest possible added value.

Not selfless, but responsible. After all, buying and selling residential property is one of the most important financial decisions in life. Isn’t it obvious that, as a real estate agent, you should focus your work primarily on the interests of your clients and not on maximising your own profits? After all, undesirable developments resulting from a primary focus on profit can be observed everywhere – whether in the food industry, healthcare or so-called social media.

With our principle of prioritising benefit optimisation, we follow the principles of corporate purpose – in other words, a corporate purpose that goes beyond a pure focus on profit. We are by no means alone in this: it would be premature to speak of a paradigm shift in the free market economy. Fortunately, however, the number of companies that see the main purpose of their products and services as creating benefits for people, society or nature is growing.

In short: targeted matching brings together prospective buyers and properties whose search criteria and property characteristics are particularly well aligned. The better a property matches a prospective buyer’s expectations, the more likely they are to be willing to pay a higher price.

To achieve this win-win situation, we rely on reliable price advice, complete target group coverage, trustworthy property presentation and comprehensive security. Our team of specialists in the fields of architecture, real estate, valuation, photography and videography combines its expertise and experience with modern technology – and commits an average of around 200 hours to each property transaction, which is about four times the industry standard of around 50 hours, according to our observations. This is because even the preparation of a marketing campaign, as required for a secure sale at the optimal price, takes around 80 working hours for on-site inventory, research and creation of missing property documents, measurement and living space calculation, market value assessment, photography and videography, 360° tour programming, data entry, exposé creation and so on.

A primary focus on profit, i.e. striving for the best cost-commission ratio, leads to problematic practices in the acquisition and execution of brokerage orders – and, in my opinion, is one of the main causes of the negative image of the real estate industry.

One widespread practice, for example, is so-called free valuations, which are used to attract owners and then persuade them to place orders by promising them unrealistically high sales proceeds. Real estate portals are also involved in this by intensively advertising free valuations and then selling the individual owner contact to brokers for several thousand euros.

Many brokerage orders that come about as a result of this consumer deception, disguised as a consumer-friendly service, are then processed with minimal effort. This can lead to considerable losses in sales revenue for sellers and at the same time entail risks with regard to purchase price payment and property liability. Buyers, in turn, can find themselves in financial difficulties if they are surprised by high expenses after the purchase due to a lack of property transparency and embellished property descriptions. It is also widespread to employ bogus self-employed persons without training in construction or real estate management. Such practices and others increase company profits at the expense of buyers, sellers and employees.

In an ideal market economy, the better brokers would drive out the less good ones, thereby continuously improving the average quality of service. But the reality is different: the level of quality remains low because the market mechanisms that lead to quality improvements in other industries do not apply in the real estate industry. For example, private owners usually only sell once or at very long intervals, which means that brokers lack the financial incentive to build up a regular customer base through customer satisfaction. In addition, it is difficult or impossible to prove objectively after the fact that a better sales result could have been achieved. And there are no real quality standards that owners could use as a guide.

All of this leads to a market situation in which service quality cannot establish itself as a differentiating factor, which inhibits quality development. Since high service quality is associated with higher costs and puts pressure on the cost-commission ratio, many brokers do not compete for the best brokerage service, but for the brokerage contract – and invest more in corporate marketing and contract acquisition than in their actual task, which is brokerage.

As mentioned at the outset, buying and selling a property are among the most important financial decisions in life. Every real estate agency and every employee should be aware of the responsibility this entails and focus on the needs of their customers: sellers want to sell securely and at the best possible price, while prospective buyers are looking for a property that best suits their living needs and expectations.

In order to do justice to both sides, real estate agencies should invest more time and resources in individual sales transactions. In addition, they should employ permanent, trained experts instead of pseudo-self-employed all-rounders, as a beneficial brokerage service requires specialised and sound expertise.

In summary, the real estate industry, which is repeatedly criticised for its lack of quality and questionable practices, could significantly improve its service quality and trustworthiness by orienting itself towards the principles of corporate purpose. However, this requires a conscious business decision to focus not on the most profitable cost-commission ratio, but on a brokerage service that offers buyers and sellers the greatest possible added value.