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Some people just don’t take choosing a Realtor® seriously. I have heard people say Realtors® are a dime a dozen. But there is a lot more to successfully buying a home that you are going to live in for years than just having a key to get you into a house that you want to look at.
Today it is easier than ever to find homes for sale on the internet. There is Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and every franchised company from Century 21 to Re/max have every listing there is. It is easy to call up the listing agent whose name is on the sign, or listed as the agent on Realtor.com. It is easy to pick a friend who just finished two weeks of real estate agent school and have them list your home. But we can tell you hundreds of stories of frustration, lost money, lost time and even horror.
There are lots of good Realtors®. There are lots of Realtors period. A recent Bloomberg Busnessweek article remarks on how the internet has decimated classified adds, hurt stock brokers and car dealerships but haven’t even dented Real Estate Brokers. It says that 90% of homebuyers start their journey on the web and credits the national websites with drawing huge amounts of traffic. But still the majority of home buyers and sellers end up using RealtorsAnd that is exactly why you need a great Realtor® Great Realtors® have done hundreds of transactions, or they are working with a Broker/agent who has. Buyers and sellers more often than not run into financing glitches, unforeseen property defects, and have no way to effectively value the property that they are buying or selling.
When a Realtor® lists a home the seller is a client. The listing agent/Broker has a legal responsibility to act in the best interest of the seller. Some states allow dual agency, which means that the agent can represent both buyers and sellers. But obviously in this case not exclusively. The importance of using an agent as your eclussive agent is that if that agent (Realtor®) has a lot of experience he or she is going to guide you through the maze and make your transaction a NOT nerve wracking, but exciting.
We know what you want and need in a Realtor® as a buyer.
- You want an expert. You want your agent to know the neighborhood and town you are buying in. You need them to know good home inspectors, lenders, Title and Escrow officers and have a team to make your transaction move smoothly. Or if you already have a lender you want your agent to work smoothly with him or her.
- You want your agent TO LISTEN TO YOU! You do NOT want an agent who is going to SELL you something. You want an agent to help you set up searches so you get NEW listings immediately when they are listed AFTER they have given you all of the current listings that fit YOUR criteria.
- You want your agent to be ready to show you a home or homes when YOU need to see them. Three days later after there may be multiple offers.
- You want an agent who can show you comparable recent sales to verify the market value of the home you consider buying.
- You want a GREAT negotiator who can work with a selling agent and sellers and get the best deal with the least closing costs.
- You want an organizer who will line up inspections with good inspectors and not inspectors that just rubber stamp the home. You do NOT want to be in a home for a month and find the furnace needs to be replaced, has never been cleaned, has mice in the crawlspace or bats iin the attic, or structural problems that cost thousands of dollars to fix. You want to find these things before you buy and have them repaired by the seller or be discounted if you still want to go through with it.
- You want a contract to buy with the ability to escape if you do find problems that the seller cannot or will not fix.
- You want and NEED honesty and integrity just as you need from your Doctor or mechanic. You need someone who you can and do truly TRUST.
- You want a successful agent who isn’t going to miss a house payment if you don’t buy a house today. You need a patient, reliable, trustworthy, knowledgeable agent with a lot of experience and or direct help with areas which they are not expert at. A new Realtor may be all of these things if they are in a team that helps them. Showing homes is the easy part and many new agents start out buy showing and having their Broker or more experienced colleges write offers, and do the rest.
- Finally, you need a Realtor® with a great, up to date website. We often get calls from people who saw listings on sites that have old outdated information.
Jon Gosche Real Estate was one of the first online agencies in Boise that had all of the MLS on it. Frankly at a time when the larger Real Estate community distained the idea. We have been consumer oriented since the beginning. This was and is my second successful career. I was not pressured to make money when I started this and I have made sure that our agents understand all of the above. It is a family business, and through the years we have made many long time friends and have friends who we have done multiple real estate transactions with through the years. We want to do the best job possible. For you. My agents are the best Boise Realtors®. Our Boise Real Estate web site is the best Boise Real Estate web site. We hope you enjoy it.