Why you should partner with a realtor before you purchase a new home

Purchasing a home can be an extremely tense and difficult process to commence. The stress can be greatly reduced simply by selecting a cooperative and experienced real estate agent. Going about such an expensive purchase alone is plain and simply not a good idea. Real estate agents will do the research necessary to ensure you get everything you want at a price you want. Don’t make the most expensive purchase you’ll likely ever make on your own.

Many first time home buyers partner with a real estate agent by fluke. The buyers express interest in a home by responding to an ad in a newspaper or trade magazine and suddenly they are partnered with a real estate agent. The problem with this is that the real estate agent in question may not be very experienced but is simply trying to maximize their commission earnings. The key to finding a great agent who will facilitate the process of buying a home and save you money is to interview several agents and ask them several questions.

Obviously the experience level of the agent is one of the most important qualities a real estate agent can have. If you have to chose between an agent with one year of experience but extensive training or an agent with fifteen years of experience and very little professional training, you should almost always chose the latter. Therefore, your first question to a real estate agent should be, “how long have you been selling real estate?” For new home buyers, try to locate an agent with at least ten years experience.

Understanding of the area you wish to purchase a home in is also very significant. An agent who has spent a great deal of time selling homes in a particular area will most likely know a great deal about that area such as the quality of the schools, crime rate, and specific rules associated with the different communities. Basically you’re looking for an agent who works a very specific area and not a very large geographical area.

A top real estate agent will normally have at least one website and a real estate blog. Do an Internet search and see if the agent you want has their website or blog appear on the first page of returned results when you type in your city and the words “real estate’, or “real estate broker” or “real estate blog”. As an example if you were to use Google and type in the search box: San Diego real estate, San Diego real estate broker or San Diego real estate blog, you will see that www.brokerforyou.com shows up on the first page of the organic results for all these popular real estate terms. So, www.brokerforyou.com is the source for top quality San Diego real estate advice. Now try the same with your city in place of San Diego.

Also, be sure to spend some time interviewing several real estate agents and asking questions and your new home experience should be a good one!

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