coming soon to market).
As your real estate agent, I will track down homes that meet your criteria, contact sellers’ agents, and secure appointments for viewing select homes. On their own, buyers have a more difficult time with these things. This is even more so the case when a buyer is moving due to relocation or employment opportunity and does not engage a buyer’s agent to handle matters that will ensure a smooth, efficient transition.
NEGOTIATING IS HARDER ON YOUR OWN
A real estate agent will strive to keep the transaction “at arm’s length,” emphasizing objectivity rather than personalities and emotions. Price negotiations take a special skill and understanding of the psychology of offering and counter- offering. Agents keep the transaction dispassionate and rational. For example, a buyer (you) might like a home but despise its wood- paneled walls, shag carpet, and lurid orange kitchen. When you work with an agent, you can express your opinions on the current owner’s decorating skills and complain about how much it will cost to upgrade the home without insulting the owner. Your agent will diplomatically translate that to the seller — that you very much like the property but can see having to spend a certain amount in decorating costs, and thus can offer that much less.
CONTRACTUALLY SPEAKING…
There are many important contracts and legal documents involved in purchasing a property. Unless you are a real estate lawyer or title agent, these documents will be foreign to you. Yet, they require detailed and accurate completion. Buying a property is not a “fill-in-the-blanks” 4
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