Most sellers do not know what to look for in an agent track record. They look at the price and the suburb and form an impression. What they should be looking for is a set of ratios, patterns, and gaps that the agent did not include.
How Agents Present Sales Data and What Gets Left Out
Cherry-picking by suburb or price bracket is equally common. An agent who operates across multiple price points will showcase results in the bracket that performed best. An agent who lists across multiple suburbs will feature the ones where their results were strongest. The seller comparing agents needs to ask specifically about results in their suburb and at their price point - not the agent best results overall.
Track records are not lies. They are selections. And the selection is always made in the interest of the agent presenting them, not the seller evaluating them. Understanding that does not require distrust. It requires the right questions.
What an agent includes in a track record is information. What they leave out is also information.
What DOM and Vendor Discount Rate Tell Sellers About Agent Performance
The vendor discount rate - the gap between the original asking price and the final sale price - is the metric that most directly reflects negotiation and pricing skill. An agent who consistently achieves sale prices close to or above asking is either pricing accurately and negotiating effectively, or both. An agent with a consistent vendor discount of five percent or more is either overpricing systematically, underperforming in negotiation, or both.
These metrics do not stand alone. A high clearance rate with a consistently low vendor discount suggests both effective pricing and strong negotiation. Reading them in combination is what produces a useful picture of agent performance rather than a misleading one.
Numbers without ratios tell you what happened. Ratios tell you how well it was managed.
What to Ask to Go Beyond the Numbers
Ask for the average vendor discount across their recent sales. If the agent presents this voluntarily, it is a positive signal. If they do not, ask for it directly. A vendor discount of one to two percent across a competitive market is a strong result. Five percent or more requires an explanation - either the market was difficult, the pricing was consistently optimistic, or the negotiation was not holding price.
Ask whether any listings in the last twelve months expired or were withdrawn. Ask this question directly, not as part of a longer conversation where it can be absorbed and redirected. The answer and the way it is delivered both carry information. An agent who claims a perfect record across dozens of listings is either extraordinarily fortunate or presenting an incomplete picture.
Most sellers spend more time researching a household appliance than verifying an agent track record. The asymmetry between effort and stakes is the most correctable mistake in the agent selection process.
The one who deflects them is showing you the same behaviour they will show buyers when holding price gets difficult.
What Good Track Record Research Leads to
Track record research does not produce a perfect agent selection. It removes the worst mistakes. The seller who asks for clearance rates, vendor discount averages, and suburb-specific results has eliminated the agents whose polished presentations concealed genuinely poor performance. What remains is a comparison between agents whose numbers hold up to scrutiny - and at that level, the selection comes down to process, communication style, and local knowledge. That is a better problem to have than choosing between an agent with strong data and one with curated data, which is the choice most sellers face when they do not ask the right questions.
The research takes an hour. The agent relationship lasts six to eight weeks.