It’s 2020. Your entire life is online, and you can DIY just about anything. This begs the question: do you REALLY still need a Real Estate Agent to buy or sell a home?
Austin has the answer in this weeks Theory Thursday!
Are you thinking about buying or selling a home? If so, you’ve probably wondered whether using a real estate agent is even necessary, or whether you should just fly solo. As you know, buying or selling a home is a huge financing decision. While doing everything yourself may seem like the way to go because of the “cost savings”, it could actually end up costing you WAY more in the long run than working with an Agent.
Today, we’re going to cover the 3 reasons why YOU still need a real estate agent.
Expertise
Reason number 1 is expertise. Real estate agents help people buy and sell homes for a living. If you’re buying a home, your Agent will make sure that you’re seeing every single home that comes on the market. Contrary to popular belief, websites like Zillow do NOT show every single house for sale. If you’re searching by yourself, there’s a very good chance that you could miss out on finding your dream home.
If you’re selling your home, it is extremely important that you price it correctly – at market value. I would be very hesitant to trust any of the online estimates of your home’s value. They do not take many factors of your home into consideration, such as the overall condition of your home. Working with a real estate agent with local market expertise will ensure that your home is priced to sell.
Negotiation
Reason number 2 why you still need an Agent is negotiation. Many people feel that direct negotiation between buyers and sellers is more transparent and allows both parties to look after their own best interests. That’s understandable, and might even be true if everyone was rational and reasonable all the time.
Truth is – tensions are high during a real estate transaction. Sellers are often insulted if a buyer makes a low offer. Buyers often get overly excited about a house and might offer more than they have to.
What if you, as a buyer, like a home but despise its wood-paneled walls, shag carpet, and bright orange kitchen? If you are working with an agent, you can express your contempt and rant about how much it’ll cost you to upgrade the home – without insulting the owner. Your real estate agent will convey your concerns to the sellers’ agent. Acting as a messenger, the agent may be in a better position to negotiate a discount, preventing any bad blood between you and the seller that could kill the deal. This will put you in a much better position to get the house you want.
Protection
Reason number 3 is protection. When you make an offer to purchase a home, the “purchase and sale agreement” contract is in place to protect you if anything goes sideways.
For example, 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 for whatever reason–you can lose your Earnest Money deposit on the home and could even be sued by the seller for failing to fulfill your end of the contract.
An experienced real estate agent deals with real estate contracts every day and will ensure that you are completely protected throughout your real estate transaction.
If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home, whether in a month or 2 years from now, a member of the Theory Team would be happy to meet with you and provide a free no obligation consultation to get all of your questions answered.
We hope you enjoyed this Theory Thursday, and that it helped give you a better understanding of how long it takes to purchase a home! If you have any more questions about the home buying process, please give us a text or call at 253-537-HOME!
