You still need a professional real estate agent to assist you in your home purchase
The internet has provided an abundance of information about buying and selling homes. There are multiple internet Portals/websites for your home search. Many of these are companies that display listing information generated by individual independent real estate agents/brokers. But, these companies do not function as real estate agents. They only want you to register on their site so they can sell your contact information to real estate agents. They do not actually connect with a seller to list and market their home.
Therefore, these third parties provide no unique service to buyers, sellers or the real estate agent. They collect and sell your information. Also, they provide data that is available publicly or that can be furnished by a licensed real estate agent. For this lack of service, they charge a referral fee of up to 35 percent, a fee per lead or a monthly fee. A few of these major players are: Zillow.com, Realtor.com, Homes.com and Trulia.com
Reasons why you need a real estate professional
Free Team at Lake Realty
They know the market. Agents spend hours researching online, via their multiple listing service (MLS) and in previewing homes. Also, they are required to keep up with material activities in their local market that can impact your decision to purchase a home. For instance, new road paths, rezoning of large tracts of land from residential to commercial or industrial, the location of landfills, airport traffic patterns and major employers coming or leaving are examples. And, a multitude of other things you need to know before making your purchase. Therefore, this requires keeping up with local news services, attending public meetings, attending educational seminars and learning from other agents – in and outside of their firm. Plus, a multitude of other activities so they can help you make the best decision about one of your most important assets.
Agents know the questions to ask you to help you solidify your specifications
It may surprise you, but agents have a saying that “buyers are liars”. They don’t mean intentionally. Only because your buyers keep changing their minds on what they want. That’s why an agent will show you a variety of homes. As an example, and a true story; one of my agents worked with a church friend for over 4 years trying to find a home that could accommodate the husband’s piano. They called her one day an excitingly said, “we bought a house”. It was a home for sale by owner – FSBO”. After moving in they invited her over and she asked, “where is the piano”? They responded, “We loved this location and kitchen so much, we sold the piano”.
Many clients have changed their specs for the better after touring several homes. Thus, showing that the buying experience is also a learning experience.
Agents Keep up with all the legalities in real estate law
Agents in NC have to take a 75-hour real estate class, pass a class test and state test to obtain a real estate license. They must take a minimum of 8 hours of continuing education annually that is written and updated by the real estate commission. In addition, training is required by their brokerage firm. The real estate laws and procedures are subject to change every year by the state legislature and the state real estate commission.
Discovering “Red Flags”
Agents have to disclose material facts about a property they list or help their client’s purchase. While agents are not engineers or inspectors, they are required to visually inspect the property inside and outside. Identifying, what we call, “Red Flags”, i.e material facts that have to be disclosed to all parties.
Whether buying a resale or new construction home, you need an agent.
Article from Rismedia about the value of a Realtor
For real estate in the lake norman NC area, visit Lake Realty