Real estate investment is referred to as one of the finest ways to increase wealth. Since the ages, people have been believing this, and a wonderful fact is that it is actually true – both in the present time and in the past. Even better, the roles of real estate professionals in helping you become a homeowner, among others.
From inquiries, to inspection, to closing of escrow, a real estate agent is your trusted guide throughout the buying process.
Here are a few reasons why you should engage a real estate agent, when you decide to become a homeowner.
1. Offer Mortgage Advice And Tips
With experience comes job knowledge that pours over customer service etiquette, and relationship building out of many.
Of course, when you decide to buy a house, there are certain obstacles you need to overcome, beginning with a mortgage. But it's not just any kind of mortgage that you can ask for. There are different types of mortgages with different purposes, so you will have to find the one that's suitable to your situation.
This is where your real estate agent's expertise plays an important role. To make the most of it, your real estate agent has the best contacts to recommend, and offer tips on how to work effectively with a recommended lender.
2. Narrow Down Your Search Criteria
As a tradition, every buyer has a list of things they need and want in a house. Just like sculpting an image out of a solid matter, this list narrows down from unwanted factors to the house of your dreams.
Most often then not, just by reading your list, your real estate agent will know exactly the property that mirrors or closely matches your criteria, inclusive of the location and price range.
Moreover, if you understand how a listing agent’s website works, that’s what a real estate agent can do for you in-person.
3. Craft A Solid Offer On Your Behalf
There are certain rules to professional writing to adhere to, if you want your reader to quickly grasp what you're trying to convey.
Rules like understanding your audience, spelling and grammar, write like you speak, structure, and context, all are paramount to the basic rules of professional writing.
These rules or principles apply across industries, and real estate is no exception.
As far as real estate deals and offers can admit, a real estate agent has the intelligence to draft up a solid deal or offer on your behalf, when you’re on the verge of making an offer to the seller.
Real estate agents understand your audience, and so will know the kind of lingo to use, in order to get positive feedback. In the end, your rights as a buyer are protected and the seller goes away impressed.
Seems like superhuman, does it? Rarely. Just enthusiasm, experience and repetition - a typical day in a real estate agent’s line of duty.
4. Negotiating Prices
Being in the field for some time, professional agents understand the importance of putting their clients’ interests first. Not to mention the value in helping their clients in a home buying process.
There’s more to buying a house than just getting a mortgage and closing a sale; that’s why it’s called a process - a home buying process. And in that process, you go through stages or steps to get to the endgame. Among these steps, you will encounter the need to negotiate the price of the property.
Imagine overpaying for a house, because you didn’t know what to consider and how to negotiate those considerations before partaking in a closed sale?
Many buyers fall short of this understanding and end up disappointed once the buying process has concluded. They fail to understand that there are certain aspects of the property that can reveal its true value, and these are the things that provide a ground for negotiations, before the purchase goes through.
Moreover, like professional writing, you must know what to say and when to say it, if you want the best deal possible, and only an agent can expertly accomplish this on your behalf.
5. Accompany You To A Home Inspection
Becoming a homeowner is one thing. Knowing what it takes to become one is something else; none more so crucial than understanding the importance of home inspections or viewings, and why they are a necessary evil in a buying process.
You see, with home inspections, it's not just about being present to admire the property and take it on face value "as-is". There's an inkling of eyes-and-mind to realize subliminal mediocrity, that go hand-in-hand with property inspections.
For instance, while exploring different areas of the house you come across an issue, which, to your untrained and inexperienced mind, it's nothing you can't fix. So, without even pointing it out to the seller, you move on. But what you didn't know was that that particular issue has the potential to determine whether or not the home buying process should proceed further.
This is why an agent will accompany you to a home inspection, as they have the eyes-and-mind to pinpoint the indifference - and are vested with the right to ask sellers to either do repairs, meet the costs or forget about selling at all.
6. Recommend professionals
Property issues aren’t one hit wonders. Some are occasional, while some are regular. Yet, all are progressive and exotic, every time, from the one before. And each issue begins with an unconventional counseling.
These issues appeal to specific professionals who make up the real estate equation such as home inspectors, lenders, contractors, and home maintenance experts. In your case, when the need arises, your agent is well positioned to recommend any of these professionals, in particular those that are highly reputable.
Simply put, whatever your property issue may be, your real estate agent is there to advise and recommend.
7. Flexible communication with the seller’s agent
As a medium for communicating all pertinent information between concerned parties, your real estate agent will keep you and the seller on the same page throughout the process.
This is where everything counts, such as:
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Relationship building
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Effective communication
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Using industry lingo
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Professional etiquette
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Transparency
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Protection of your interests
And a host of bits and pieces that make up a valuable home buying experience. A professional agent in your team will tick off these points without hesitancy.
8. Monitor your mortgage commitment
When it comes to going the extra mile for clients or customers, no one does it better in real estate than real estate agents.
Putting your interests first, and doing everything they can under the sun just to give you a good experience of their services, real estate agents have what it takes to make it happen for you.
One way they do this is by keeping tabs on your loan status, and offering advice on what to do and what not to do before your loan is approved. It’s their way of saying “thank you for choosing us as your top of the mind agent in real estate”.
Sounds like fun? You haven’t seen nothing yet!
9. Work around escrow and your closing costs
The home buying process doesn’t stop once an offer or agreement is reached. Escrow and closing costs will follow, and where they surface, your agent is on hand to help you navigate through them in a streamlined manner, before successfully closing.
But between there and then, you have title transfer, home insurance, exchange of money and related documents, attorney’s fees, pest inspection and the like to deal with. They all fall in immediately after an offer has been agreed to, and just before a transaction is marked “closed”.
As you can see, there’s lots to do in that short time frame that you’re vulnerable to make mistakes. But not unless you have an agent by your side will your home ownership journey be one to remember for quite some time.
Bottom line
Your dream of homeownership will only become painstaking and tedious, if you don’t understand the process and what it takes to sail through with ease and bright sparkling teeth. Worse still if you skirt the assistance of a real estate agent.
All things considered, whatever the issue is in real estate, your agent is your knight in shining armor.
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