We live in an age of instant access to any information we desire. Real estate is no exception. If you’re in the market for a home you can Google any address, any neighborhood any school district and get a mountain of information that will inform your decision. We even offer you access to the MLS on our site so that you can be (almost) as well informed as we are about your options.
So with all this information at your fingertips why on earth would you pay for a realtor?
I have a good friend of mine who is a realtor and he makes the analogy of skydiving (…yes he is also a skydiver). He says if you want to do your first jump you could certainly rent the parachute, read the instructions, watch online training videos, hire a plane and head up into the wild blue yonder*. However, he says ” I’m not sure I’d want to be taking my first jump from 10,000 feet all alone.” You can imagine the feeling of looking down and wondering if there was something you might have missed, or overlooked or worse…completely gotten wrong.
Buying a house can be just like that.
For most people buying a house will be the single largest financial transaction they will be involved in. I remember sitting at the closing for my first house and feeling uneasy about the amount of debt I was about to incur. When I saw the contract I really panicked! It not only showed the amount of the mortgage we were taking out but it also showed the enormous amount of money we were obligated to pay back over the 30 years. I was so glad I had my realtor beside me to explain what all the checks were for, what was going on and pause the proceedings if he felt something wasn’t quite right.
And that’s why you want a realtor on your team.
Buying a house, especially your first house, can be a lot like jumping out of a plane. There are hundreds of small details to consider, any one of which could mean big trouble if not attended to correctly. Selling a home can be even more tricky. Every state has it’s own laws covering disclosures. You don’t want to get in trouble because you failed to disclose that your house was haunted do you? No really it’s the law in California!
It’s hard to accumulate experience
To paraphrase Mr Rumsfeld “You don’t know what you don’t know”. As a buyer or seller it’s hard to accumulate experience. Most people only buy or sell one or two homes in their lifetime. I have been involved in countless real estate transactions and each one taught me something new. Each one showed me something that surprised me and gave me an opportunity to say “Wow, I’ll never do that again!” To have someone guide you through the process who has done it dozens, if not hundreds of times, will not only assuage your worries but it might also save you thousands of dollars.
Here are 3 ways you can save thousands on your mortgage
It goes without saying that a mistake on a parachute jump can seriously damage your health (!) and a mistake buying or selling a house can be equally damaging to your finances. The amount of mortgage, the terms, the balloon payments, the closing costs are all aspects of a mortgage that need to be carefully considered. If not, the consequences can stay with you for years… if not decades.
Here are a few of the issues that I’ve faced during my career;
- Sewer line issues; not only very messy but if not caught, this problem could have resulted in legal action
- A roof that was approaching the end of it’s life, easily missed but very expensive to correct
- Signs of water leakage hidden in the garage; the only sign was a little bowing of the ceiling paint.
- Making sure the house was compliant with Megan’s law, buyers can cite this issue when they want to get out of a deal and is very easily overlooked
Any one of these problems could have scuttled the sale if they had not been dealt with quickly and successfully.
Here are 7 surprising things you need to disclose when selling a home in Southern California.
On-line research
These days buyers are increasingly using sites like Zillow, Trulia and Homes.com to research properties. It is very common for clients to arrive already knowing about the houses they are interested in. However it’s important to realize that these sites do not list complete MLS data. Full MLS information often includes showing instructions, scheduling and pertinent disclosures. Customers should also be aware that Unlike Realtor.com and Redfin.com—which reference only listings posted by real estate agents—sites like Zillow, Trulia and Homes.com are accessible to the public. Anyone can list any property, and there are no guarantees of the accuracy of the information.
In conclusion
In this day and age it’s easy to consider not hiring a realtor. But if you talk to anyone who has bought or sold a house you will notice that the ones who used a licensed, experienced realtor were glad that they did. Real estate deals rarely go off without a hitch and experience can make sure those those hitches are not hair pulling, sleep loosing deal breakers but mild, slightly inconvenient irritants.
*Not technically of course.. there are regulations about this kind of thing but for the purposes of the analogy lets suspend reality for a while.
