Not As Seen on TV
If only it was as simple as it looks on TV. Meet the real estate agent in the street, in a neighborhood you think you would like to live in. They open up the doors to 3 houses and then you pick the one that will be your dream home. In less than 20 minutes, after you back out time for commercials, the agent says “congratulations, you’re a home owner!” But that’s only one small part of it.
There are pre-approvals and mortgage commitments to be had, home inspections to be done and legal documents to review and sign. You need help and direction from mortgage lenders, home inspectors and attorneys, to name a few. The good news is that you don’t have to figure all of this out on your own. As a buyer agent, one of my favorite things to share with future home buyers is that you don’t have to know everything.
There is a difference between the things you need to know when you are buying a house and the things “they” think you should know. “They” are all the experts you are suddenly surrounded with when you tell people you are thinking about buying real estate. There is your cousin who bought a house a year ago, halfway across the country. There is your college roommate who does home repairs on the side. And the waitress at the diner you go to on Saturday morning who overheard talk of some amazing foreclosure opportunity.
The home-buying knowledge you need falls into three categories:
- knowledge of your own personal criteria
- knowledge of the home-buying process itself
- knowledge of your local real estate market
Of those three, the only one you absolutely need to master is the first—what you want, what you need and what you can afford. You need this knowledge to develop a clear vision of the home you are looking for. It’s the job of your buyer agent to help you with the other two and to help you narrow the market to only those homes that fit your needs. Once you find that special property, your agent will also lead the way as your home is researched, assessed, negotiated, contracted, inspected, appraised, surveyed, fixed, financed, insured and finally purchased.
Helping you find the true experts to work with throughout the process and coordinating the myriad of details and dates is what working with a great buyer agent is all about. It’s about more than just opening up the door.
Beth is a practicing Realtor and Interactive Marketing Manager at Barrett & Company Real Estate in Concord, Massachusetts. She spends her days coaching home buyers and sellers through the intricacies of buying and selling property and training her fellow agents on the importance of and benefits to an online presence, most recently on Google+! Read more of her work on the Barrett Massachusetts real estate blog.
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I love this post! When my husband and I purchased our first home we had been lucky enough to have a wonderful buyer agent refferred to us. It truly made all the difference in the world- well said Beth!
This post really rings true. A good buyer agent can really make all the difference in the world when looking for the perfect home. One can help you think of all the right questions to ask.
Thanks for the comments, Claire and CJ. I’m glad to hear you had good experiences. I like to help my buyers find the answers or get them to the right sources that have the answers.
I do like how TV hypes certain things up and give this glamorous style but fail to represent the “real” Behind the scenes stuff…Nothing is simple, nothing is guaranteed, long hours, frustrating days, do I need to say more…
Thanks for the comments, Dave. On the opposite side of the spectrum I did see one of the house hunting shows the other night and the couple looked at 118 houses before they decided on one. Wait, I don’t think that has enough impact written like that…the couple looked at ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN HOUSES before they decided on one. I’m not sure if they changed their criteria along the way or just needed better guidance from the start to figure out what they truly wanted. I try do a really good “needs analysis” when I start working with buyers so we make things productive.