Just to elaborate on a few of the general comments on the above meme to give you a little better idea of what your real estate agent will actually be doing for your through the buying and selling process.
How a Real Estate Agent Helps You Through the Buying and Selling Process
A real estate agent (the best ones anyways) does nothing but eat, sleep and drink real estate. All day long. For some reason, perhaps because you can always meet a new client anywhere, the best real estate agents are always thinking about real estate. It is almost like an obsession to some of us. This means not only do we know and understand the real estate transaction process, we know the best way to navigate through the challenges. Unfortunately all deals have challenges. Some are very big and some are very small. Most of the time a real estate agent won’t even tell you about most of the hurdles they run into through the process. I would say that every deal has at least one point the contract almost terminates. If the person that is driving this deal does not know how to react legally, emotionally (yeah FSBO homes can be very emotional in their negotiations) and professionally the deal will die. The home will go back on the market and you will be back to square one.
Real estate agents will start at the beginning with their clients.
The basics are a part of every deal just like every single deal is always just a little different or really different. The basics for buyers are things almost all buyers need to do. Every deal is a little different so some deals may have more basic elements or less.
The Buyers Side of the Real Estate Transaction
Buyers will start with an idea. An idea that they would like to have a change in their life. When buying a home you start by looking on local real estate agents website. Don’t start on Zillow. Zillow has very old, outdated and inaccurate data. There are a lot of agents that are no longer listing their listings on Zillow. So buyers will start on a local real estate site that is updated in real time and has property alerts. A great site for that is OrsonHillRealty.com.
So you find the perfect home for sale and you want to see it. What does a buyer do? This is the point that the real estate agent should be involved. Some real estate agents would tell you to contact your lender first. I completely disagree. Your real estate agent should be the first call you make. Most people have an idea if they will qualify for a home and about what price. If not your real estate agent can help you a bit with the math and get a rough idea.
Don’t get me wrong you will need to contact a mortgage loan lender very soon after speaking to an agent. Buyers do need a lender letter to submit with their offer. First tho, find a couple of homes you love! Then call an agent then call a lender. Why not? Make your home buying fun and interesting, Be sure to engage it fully!
So after you get a list of homes to see from your real estate agent, next the fun begins! Looking at the homes are the best part of your entire move. At this point is when you should speak to your lender. Before you actually physically go to look at homes. It is OK to look online and talk to your real estate agent prior to looking at homes in person. Once you start taking up the time of sellers we should know that you qualify for the home you are planning to tour.
After seeing anywhere from 1 to 100 homes the buyer is ready for the next step. The next step is the offer. The offer process is incredibly important. The contract to buy and sell real estate in Colorado (and other states as well) is very tricky. This contract sets the entire process up and explains the dates and deadlines along with many other extremely important terms in the contract. It is very important to have real estate professional prepare this document. Or at least someone that has some sort if idea what they are doing.
This is the first part of negotiations. It is important to have a real estate professional that knows how to prepare an offer to have appealing terms overall. The price is only one line in a 20 page contract. There are many other areas a skilled real estate agent can prepare these for you.
So after preparing the offer, submitting it to the listing agent and the seller, the buyer waits to see if the seller will accept, counter or reject the offer. Not often does the seller just flat out reject the or ignore the offer. If that happens you may want to re access your offer and how you write them. The original offer should be close enough that the other party feels a counter might get both buyer and seller in the same ballpark and eventually under contract.
Now at this point the buyer has signed up on a local real estate website and real time property alerts, found a home, called a real estate agent, Seen that home, made an offer and negotiated to the point of becoming under contract. So now that the buyer is under contract, what is next? The buyer starts setting up inspections and getting their paperwork to the bank (lender).
What is the inspection phase? There is a time frame of due diligents. The buyer has the given amount of time (through the date matrix on the contract to buy and sell) to do things such as review HOA docs, Seller Property Disclosure and other docs. This is also the time you inspect the home. The basic inspections in the mountains (there are plenty more so refer to your real estate agent about what home tests they recommend for that area). The basic home inspection is a must. This is when an inspector comes in and searches for anything that might be wrong with the home. Remember they don’t tear out walls or floors but they can usually see symptoms of a larger problem. Most home inspectors are able to do a Radon test as well. That is another highly recommended test. Then like we mentioned you can test for hundreds of other things such as well, sewer and anything else you might run into.
If the buyer comes up with issues during any of these inspections they request to the seller these things be repaired or at least looked at closer. This is basically another seat at the negotiation table. Let’s say these things are agreed to. The buyer and seller must agree on the resolution.
Your buyer agent will guide you through the rest of the transaction and as your real estate agent we help you every step of the way….
The Seller Process – What Your Listing Agent Will Do
When you are looking for the best listing agent to list your home with it is important to find a real estate agent that understands how to market a home in this day and age. A seller needs a high tech real estate company. Not a national company, one that is local and knows the market and the way to market the homes target market.
One of the very first things the listing agent will do is find a price for your home. It is very important you listen to the listing agent about price. Real estate agents do a very good at pricing your home correctly. They know the market, understand the market and know what the market will think of your home and its value.
Once you have set the value and figured out all the paperwork with the agent your agent will start marketing your home. From pictures and entering to the MLS. Then what happens next is depending on the type of real estate agent you hire. A good agent markets your home like crazy. Even in a seller’s market (we are falling out of a sellers market very fast) a home needs to have marketing. To find out the true market value of your home you need a high number of people coming through your home. As stated many times before, the market sets the true value for your home. If no one in a year makes you an offer on your home at $1,000,000 the chances are your home is not worth a million dollars.
If you have a septic your listing agent will let you know what needs to be done at that point.
More about listing your home with Orson Hill Realty.