Purchasing a home can be an extremely stressful and difficult process
to carry out. 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
happenstance. 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
characteristics 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.
Awareness of the area you wish to purchase a home in is also very vital.
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 like
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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