If you’re amidst a process of buying a new house, it can undoubtedly be quite an emotional as well as financial ride. This doesn’t have to be so, since there are ways to lessen the burden of such major life-changing events, but some stressful circumstances simply cannot be avoided. Instead, they have to be tackled head on and help should always be considered in such cases. A real estate agent may seem like you’re just hiring extra muscle for all the work, however, they are more than that and here’s why.
Liaison Between Buyers and Sellers
They simply have more access to all the other properties that are listed by other agents. If you yourself are not even a little bit in that business, you won’t have any idea just how many connections and contacts a professional has. The buyer and the seller both have their own agent and they are the ones who do all the rough work in order to get to a mutual agreement. Real estate agents track down homes that match your preferences, they get in touch with agents whose clients are selling and they also make appointments in your stead so you can view your potential house from the inside-out. This can go vice-versa, because if you’re the one who is selling, then they can solicit calls from interested parties, answer questions and arrange meetings.
Negotiations
This is an undeniably tricky business, mainly because people don’t like to negotiate through an agent. Instead, they prefer to approach deal-making directly due to the transparency and openness about best interests of both sides. Still, not a lot of people believe that negotiations can’t go wrong, as everyone expects everything to be reasonable and selfishly beneficial, but that is obviously rarely the case. This is where a real estate agent steps in to intervene with much more practical approach to such deal-making discussions. They act as messengers, someone who can negotiate discounts, acquire information, estimate net worth if you’re buying a home, or someone who promotes your house’s comfort and conveys all your concerns and decor decisions to the interested parties if you’re selling. They are a much better solution for those tough transactions and they can smooth things out without the need to get all dramatic and personal.
Contracts Tend to be Hard to Handle
Formally speaking, whether you decide to buy or sell a home, a contract is there to protect you and enable you to back out of the deal if certain conditions haven’t been met. On forbes.com you can find an example that states: “If you plan to buy a home with a mortgage but you fail to make financing one of the conditions of the sale – and you aren’t approved for the mortgage – you can lose your deposit on the home and could even be sued by the seller for failing to fulfill your end of the contract.”
An experienced realtor deals with these legal conditions on a regular basis, making him familiar with the entire process which is essential for your pursuit of selling or buying a home. If you attempt to do this alone however, it can be quite nerve-wracking and time-consuming, that’s for sure!
They are Licensed Professionals
This is one of the main reasons why they tend to be costly. However, they are qualified to deal with properties, so when you get into a difficult situation, it pays off to have their level of expertise at your side, as their professionalism is what can ultimately save you money in the long run. All you have to do is pick one. It’s their obligation to work for you in accordance to the law (should they agree to represent you in the first place, of course).
Experts like the Think Conveyancing Team can tell you everything regarding this matter – how an agent is bound by common law to a fiduciary relationship, how an agent represents you via conventional, full-service commission agreement, how they work for their clients in order to survive in the business and even how to settle things in or outside of the court should your agent lie to you and fail to uphold his or her duties. Remember, it’s your choice how you’re going to act (buy or sell), but it’s always better to ask for help every now and then.