Working With a Realtor

Here is a bit of history on our experience in working with Realtors.  We began by talking to a few different realtors, and over a period of time we ended up going with a realtor that seemed to fit our personality type and seemed to have our best interests in mind.  Our particular realtor was also good at following up with us and answering questions.  We had found this particular realtor through some friends who had used her when buying their home.

We had talked to two other realtors as well, neither of them followed up with us very well despite one of them being more experienced and the other having a professionally designed image and program designed to help buyers find thei ideal home.  Beyond this simple fact our realtor had the simple benefit of being a referral from trusted friends and the ability to present herself in a non-imposing manner without implying and pressure.

As we began looking at realtors I realized that my credit would need some repair work in order to get a better deal on a home, I will describe how I repaired my credit myself in another article.

In working with realtors I have learned a few things:

1. Get a Realtor with whom you feel comfortable – you don’t want a realtor who will pressure you into getting a home you don’t want
2. Do some work yourself.  – Using the internet you can find a lot out about homes before you ever talk to your realtor.  Tax records, estimated value, ownership, neighborhood and school information, comparables.  But before you decide you don’t want a Realtor, realize there are several things that realtors can get that you do not have easy access to.  Realtors often subscribe to various realtor organizations and information services which provide them with much more detail than you will find free on the internet.  The trick to successfully using a realtor is to get them to handle the tasks that are difficult or not accessible to you.  We used our realtor to communicate with other realtors, get additional information on homes we were interested in, and setting appointments
3. A realtors knowledge is helpful.  If you are buying your first home or have not been activly researching homes for some time, gauging the feel of potential areas  and the receptability offers may be a difficlut task.  A realtor who has been working in the area would know off hand answers to these types of questions and can offer pretty good advice.
4. Let them prepare the documents, your job is to read and sign.

In my next home purchase I will probably use the services of a realtor again. There are some conditions in which I would not want to use a Realtor.  One example is if I wanted to buy a specific home that I was intimatly familiar with, and was willing to accept the home in its current condition.