I can’t say enough to my clients why it’s important to have a “great” team working for you! I don’t mean that you need a Real Estate Team necessarily, but rather, a team of professionals to get you through the purchase or sale of your home.
So you ask, “Team? Well, what you do mean by team?”
Your Realtor will give you names of professionals they recommend to get you through the large task of selling or buying your home. It truly is a large and complex task, so having great professionals working for you is key!
The first person on your team is a Great Realtor!
A great Realtor is someone who is highly knowledgeable of the market and area – an agent who has years of experience and proof of sales to show you. I gladly share my yearly productivity figures with customers on nice, large post cards because it’s important for them to see that this is my full time job. in addition to expertise, another important consideration is “who” the agent is, personality-wise. You need a knowledgeable, talented agent who cares about you, and since you’ll be spending quite a bit of time with your realtor, it should be someone you’ll get along with well. You can also use the internet and talk with friends and neighbors to verify that you have a good Realtor on your team.
I treat each and every sale as if it were my own home I am buying or selling. It is absolutely important to me that my clients are happy. Your wallet is my wallet, your time is my time, and your worries are my worries. I try to make each sale as seamless as possible. Real estate is tricky and there are things that happen that are out of our control, but I do my very best to take as much pain out of it as possible and iron out issues with as little stress to my clients as humanly possible. Buying a home is supposed to be a happy and exciting time! Verify my review history under my profile on www.zillow.com.
The second team member you need is a highly responsive, knowledgeable lender/loan officer.
Let’s face it, when do people buy homes? Typically after work or on the weekends! Realtors are available in the evening and on the weekends so why shouldn’t your lender be available then as well? You need a lender you can call in the evening or be able to leave a message and receive a call back quickly. When you write a contract, you need a pre-qualification letter. That mans you will need access to your lender when that dream home appears, and it will likely be in the evening or on the weekend!
In addition to accessibility, you need a lender that knows loans! That sounds silly, right? Seriously, it’s true! A good lender has knowledge of many different loan programs and will advise you what program would work best for you at the most reasonable cost. A good lender can, and will, think outside the box – just like a good Realtor! A good Realtor always hooks up with a good lender! A good Realtor learns great information from good lenders that we share with our clients.
Connecting with a lender/loan officer that you can actually meet in person is also a great advantage in many cases. A hands-on approach is often vital the success of a sale. It is so nice to be able to go sit down with your lender and have a face to face meeting. Some lenders/loan officers are located in Texas, Minnesota, or other states not local to where you are buying a home, so this option isn’t always available, but I encourage my clients to do business locally whenever possible for a more personal touch.
The third team member you need when buying and selling is a Fabulous Home Inspector!
I have a fabulous home inspector – he is so fabulous I don’t feel I need any one else but him! If my clients ask for a home inspector I can and will give you a few to pick from. However, I have a favorite for several reasons. He has a lot of integrity and spends hours inspecting homes. He is very thorough with the homes I sell and finds things you don’t see with the naked eye. For instance, because I am always present at home inspections, I often asked myself why he leaves the shower on for such a long time while inspecting a home? I found out one fateful day when it started raining in the basement from the shower upstairs! Yikes! After that happened, he said, “And that is why I leave the showers on,” as if he knew what I’d been thinking!
The fourth team member you need is an excellent title company!
Trust me when I say I have been to settlements where the title company for the other side made the hair on my arms stand up. You need a professional title company that does your title search well because there are all sorts of crazy title issues out there and also because you need a thorough explanation of the papers you are signing at settlement. This is a huge investment, so you need to understand what you are signing!
When your Realtor provides you with recommendations for professionals to consider using during your real estate purchase or sale it is likely because those professionals are trusted and do a great job! For me as a Realtor, I prefer to work with a great team that I know I can rely on. I also have a list of professionals I recommend even after the sale of each property I represent.
You ask, “What do I need after I buy a home?”
You need trusted contractors that you can call upon for home improvements or repairs from that to do list the home inspector gave you! Trusted contractors are important because, sadly enough, there are folks out there that take advantage of people. The list I provide my clients is like my very own Angie’s list!
It’s not just me during your real estate transaction – there are several professionals that play an integral part, so you need a great team that works well together!