Why It’s Important to Work with a Real Estate Professional
Whether you’re buying or selling a home, it’s always a good idea to work with a real estate professional. For a buyer, it’s almost a no-brainer because the real estate agent’s commission is generally paid by the seller. But even if you’re selling a house, there are a number of reasons why it’s important to work with a real estate professional.
They Have a Fiduciary Responsibility
Whether you are a buyer or a seller, your real estate agent has a fiduciary responsibility to you as their client. What this means is that the real estate agent must always look out for your best interests. Real estate agents are legally obligated to adhere to a strict code of ethics, so you can be sure that you have someone on your side who’s looking out for you.
They Are a Wealth of Information
These days, it’s easy enough to get on the Internet and find out a lot of information about the homes that are available in any given area, or even a single specific home. But no matter how much information can be found on the Internet, a real estate agent will always have access to more information.
As a buyer, your real estate agent can help you find great deals before they are ever posted on the Internet. As a seller, a real estate agent will be able to bring you many more potential buyers than you could ever get on your own.
You may be able to put an ad in the newspaper and post your home online, but a real estate agent will do much more than that. They will have your home listed in the multiple listing service, and they will contact other real estate professionals who have buyers that are looking for a home in your area.
They Have Connections
Real estate agents are always networking with other agents as well as other professionals in the field. Real estate agents learn about new homes as soon as they hit the market because they are always networking with other agents.
A real estate professional will also be able to point you in the right direction when it comes to things like finding a good lender, a home inspector, a contractor etc. A real estate professional is a valuable resource and they are happy to help you.
They Will Help You Price Your House Right
If you’re selling your own home, you have a limited number of options when it comes to pricing it properly. You may have some information about how much your neighbor’s home sold for, but knowing the sales price of one or two houses in your neighborhood isn’t enough information to price your home properly.
You could use any number of sites on the Internet to get an estimate of how much your home is worth, but these sites often make their estimates based on tax records. The problem with that is that the tax records may be up to a year old and the assessed value of a house is often as much is 35% different than the value an appraiser would come up with.
A real estate professional has access to all of the comps in your area. These are the houses that are comparable to yours and your real estate agent will be able to find all of these and how much these homes sold for. Based on this information, a real estate professional will help you price your house so that it sells quickly and it sells for the most money possible.
They Keep Up-To-Date
Buying or selling a home is a lot more complicated than buying or selling just about any other product or service you can imagine. Real estate laws vary greatly from one state to another and they can even change from year to year in any given state. It is a real estate professional’s job to keep up-to-date with these changes and to keep their clients informed and this will help prevent a person from possibly making a very costly mistake.