Real Estate Tips, Advice and
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find the right real estate agent?
What is the best negotiating style?
How do I know what to offer?
Our offer was accepted! Now what?
Should I use a REALTOR® to help me sell my home?
How does the REALTOR® help me price my home?
How does the REALTOR® help me market my home?
How will the REALTOR® help me negotiate the best price for my home?
"Deals can de-rail by inattention to detail!"
How do I find the right real estate agent?
First, it would be nice if you can find a REALTOR®. It suggests a certain degree of professionalism. They have a Code of Ethics to back up you and them.
Try to find a real estate agent that will talk straight with you, be able to communicate ideas clearly and one that you feel comfortable with. The only way trust will be formed is through time and association. If you are not happy - get a new agent! You owe them absolutely nothing. There are more than enough excellent agents out there for everyone. Don’t fall for all the “flash and trash” agent stuff either. Sometimes about the closest you will ever get to that species of agent is the picture on their business cards. Your deal will more likely be carried out by “assistants”. You are hiring a real estate agent and not an assistant. Never except anything less.
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What is the best negotiating style?
There is no such thing as a “best” style. You are looking for an honest “meeting of the minds.” It should ideally be a fair and beneficial real estate transaction for both buyer and seller. Most sellers want more than fair market prices and buyers want less. A fair price is what they duke out. That is what makes the market as a whole, a bunch of little individual deals determine the fair market price of a home. It comes down to that old golden rule: “Don’t do anything to anyone you would not like done to you.” That is a good negotiating style and a good way to live life, too.
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First, we look at what comparable homes have sold for in that area up to a year previous. We try and find out just how motivated the seller is and the possibility that when and if they sell is as important as the asking price. Every home for sale is a different situation. How many other homes are for sale in the neighborhood? Are there pluses and minuses about the house that could possibly affect your bid? An example being a house on a busy street as opposed to a side street, easements, need of a lot of updating, etc. CENTURY 21 Future Builder's, Inc. will be a tremendous resource at this stage of the deal.
There are parts you have control over somewhat as well. Ideally, come in strongly pre-approved by a good honest loan officer. You are considered golden when you don’t have a house to sell first. Contingent based sales can be rough. You may want to get a bridge loan. It is worth it in the end and they rarely ever kick in. Look at this as a temporary loan for your down payment on your new house. As soon as you sell your old house that loan is paid off. Even if you should not sell that house as quickly as you had hoped, the payments would probably not be ruinous for the short term. You end up getting the new house you really liked all along.
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Our offer was accepted! Now what?
This is really the most important part of a REALTOR'S® job. The “salesperson” part is over with. Many real estate agents loose interest after “the kill” and let the details slip by them until the deal starts getting ugly. Follow through is the most important part from now until the closing. The REALTOR® should keep in communication with the buyer as each step is accomplished on the way to the closing table. A good REALTOR® will absorb much of the flack right now that would otherwise be smacking you. There are always a few agonizing details to be ironed out and a couple of deadline waiting periods that seem like an eternity when you are going through them. CENTURY 21 Future Builder's Inc. will take care of all the details.
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Should I use a REALTOR® to help me sell my home?
YES! You will walk away with more money in your pocket and a lot less grief from deals falling apart because of circumstances beyond your control. You must ask yourself just how much time you have to devote to this endeavor, too.
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How does the REALTOR® help me price my home?
The first thing a good REALTOR® will do is a Comparative Market Analysis on your home. This gives us the pulse of the market locally around your home. A good REALTOR® will have intangible information because they are out in that market 7 days a week. Pricing your home takes more input than just a stack of raw information. That raw information must be applied to fit the individual home for sale. There are many things to consider about how your home fits into the market. A good REALTOR® will let you set the asking price for your home after getting all the facts together for you to ponder.
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How does the REALTOR® help me market my home?
Let the good REALTOR® handle all this and relax. Their job is to expose your real estate property to the public and as many agents as possible. It is estimated that about 85% of the sales will be generated by sales to cooperating agents from exposure in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that all REALTOR®S work with. During this time, the good REALTOR® will be beating the bushes trying to sell your home by word of mouth, advertising, open houses, etc. It is in your agent’s best interest to sell that house on their own so they can “double dip” on that commission and get both sides. The REALTOR® will not get paid until your home is sold. In fact, they will actually incur costs because a lot of the expense will come out of their pocket.
Advertising must be used judiciously and wisely to get the most bang for your buck. The National Association of REALTORS® recently did a study with the results that 82% of sales have absolutely nothing to do with advertising at all. The REALTOR'S® past clients, referral base and other contacts are an important part of what they bring to the table in the marketing of your home.
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How will the REALTOR® help me negotiate the best price for my home?
Your good REALTOR® will evaluate every offer with you weighing in the pros and cons. Just remember this is all part of a process. It entails much more then just a signed purchase agreement. That is when the inspections, appraisals and loan companies get a hold of the deal for awhile to process the information and spew back a sound deal. The good REALTOR® will deal with all of this and keep you informed of every step as it happens. This is the time the good REALTOR® can really shine and keep the deal on tract. Just remember…
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“Deals can de-rail by inattention to detail”
Make your REALTOR® earn his keep at this end of the deal. This is the meat and potatoes part of our job that can make a closing an easy and pleasant experience instead of a nightmare. Find a REALTOR® you can communicate with and one that you can sense enough positive character traits in to begin to build a trustful relationship. Build that relationship and approach the goal as a team. That is the ideal relationship of a real estate transaction. Just do things right in a timely manner. Pure and simple.
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