STEPPING STONES OF BUYING REAL ESTATE
There once was a story about someone who wanted to buy a house but they didn’t–and now they regret it.
Beginning, middle, end.
A sad but true story, which repeats itself. All. The. Time.
I totally get it. Buying a house is scary; it makes you sweat, maybe even break out in hives. I’ve seen people break down and cry more than once. Even the smoothest of deals can still bring about massive amounts of stress.
The unknown is a scary place and a lot of the home-buying process lives in the world of the unknown. Will our bid get accepted? Will the inspections come back a wreck? Will they fix that septic leak? Will this appraise out? There are so many things that have to go exactly right.
Unfortunately, many people get overwhelmed right from the beginning and don’t end up making it to what I call the next ‘stepping stone’ of the process. This is a bummer because they almost always regret it. I can’t guarantee that every time will be a cakewalk, but at the very least you can say that you tried.
It has been particularly difficult for my clients looking to buy a house in Mystic, CT area. Because in the last couple years, the homes I was showing to many were in the $330-$425k range and now they are being listed at $550k and above. The people wanting to buy these houses to make them a home are competing with cash buyers who want to buy these same houses in order to turn them into an AirBnB or VRBO. The latter see it as a business investment, not a home, and will pay well above the asking price.
Even though it is tricky, I have noticed the clients who trust me simply have better results. You need to trust your agent. If you don’t, then, to be honest, you should find a new one. If the trust isn’t there, how will you make the important decisions as you step to the next stone?
Heather’s Stepping Stones of a Real Estate Transaction:
House hunting (that’s the fun part)
Choosing a house and putting in an offer
Deciding on and performing inspections (once an offer is accepted)
Negotiating the inspection results and remedies
Appraisal
Mortgage commitment
Closing
You need to find a trusted agent to help you through the process. You could do it without one, but why would you?
Hopefully, you already have an agent in your life that you have worked with or have been planning on working with. If not, the next best thing is to have one referred to you.
A family or friend who has had a great experience with an agent should be excited to share their agent–if it truly was a great experience. Though this is not to say the transaction went completely how they wanted it to go, but rather that they found a good fit and their agent was able to handle the ups and downs of the deal.
Another, lesser known, referral system is through an agency. If you used an agent in another town or state and he or she doesn’t work around the area you are now buying in, contact them and ask if they can assist in finding someone for you. This has been happening to me more and more often. It is fantastic because the other agent can do the vetting for you. They can ask the right questions and get a good (or bad) feeling about the new person who will guide you through this important process.
My last suggestion, should neither of those scenarios apply to you, is to call a respected, well-known agency and ask to speak to the office manager. Let them know you are looking for X, Y, and Z and they should be able to suggest someone in their office who would fit the situation.
For example, I do both commercial and residential real estate in the Mystic area. It would be a huge disservice to someone planning to buy or lease a commercial space if he or she isn’t referred to an agent who works in the commercial field. It’s apples and oranges.
If a certain agent has a specialty in multi-families, then the manager would know that and refer appropriately. Similarly, if someone has their finger on the pulse of waterfront properties in Mystic, then, you get the idea.
These suggestions should help you kick off a successful client-agent relationship. A cold call to an agent or just choosing the agent who is the first to pop up in a search doesn’t really inspire that initial layer of trust.
