More often than not, buying or selling a home is a person’s largest financial move in life. There are many components to a real estate transaction, and these real estate transactions take time. You owe it to yourself to work with an experienced, full-time Realtor.
I always joke that anyone can walk into the local grocery, jump on the intercom, and ask, Who has a real estate license?” You’ll find a raised hand in every isle. Let’s face it, the barriers to entry are quite low, and most people who have a real estate license don’t use it! We all have friends and family members that started something new. We want to support those people, but we wouldn’t do it at a cost to ourselves. For example, even with my lack of hair, I don’t want to be a Barber’s first try!
Experience matters in the real estate business. Every real estate transaction is different because it involves a different property, different buyers, different sellers, and different real estate agents, escrow companies, home inspectors, and so on. It’s important to work with someone who has sold their fair share of homes, and represented their fair share of clients over the years. Better yet, working with an experienced team is even better. That team can combine for decades of experience and offer different areas of expertise.
Experience creates relationships across the business. An experienced, full-time Realtor has relationships with lenders, home inspectors, contractors, landscapers, painters, and attorneys, just to name a few. These relationships benefit the client time and time again. Need a home loan? Call your Realtor. Need an A/C repair? Call your Realtor. Experienced Realtors have relationships with other Realtors, and reputations that can add value. In the past two weeks our reputation in the business has been a deciding factor in getting two of our client’s offers accepted… every little edge helps!
Your Realtor should be full-time, as selling real estate is a seven day a week venture. If your Realtor is at their “real job”, you’ll miss out on getting into a home, getting inspections done in a timely fashion, or simply getting responses from your agent. We recently had a deal with a buyer’s agent on one of our listings. This buyer’s agent was inexperienced, part time, and his clients suffered because of it. The agent didn’t attend the home inspection, had no access to contractors to answer simple questions, and was unable to relay our answers back to his clients. This agent also didn’t understand the purchase agreement. His clients were doomed from the beginning. By the way, years of experience doesn’t equal actual experience. This agent claimed over 45 years of experience, but had only completed a handful of transactions in that period of time. Buying and selling real estate are expensive moves and you deserve access to a professional.
Real estate transactions are a big deal. Take advantage of an experienced professional’s expertise and you’ll end up with the best results possible!
