It looks easy, doesn’t it? With the internet, how hard can it be to buy or sell a home?
There are no shortage of options. Buyers see thousands of homes for sale, and sellers find thousands of agents happy to list a home for fees ranging from $100 to 6%.
Yet the perception remains that the process is stressful and costly. Why, when it looks so easy from the outside looking in?
Here are ten reasons why buyers and sellers should Get Good Help:
Friends and family – Buyers and sellers have friends and family who are happy to critique every move. Most of all, they remind sellers not to give it away, and possible deals get crushed regularly over 1% to 2%.
HGTV – Where consumers learn how the home-selling game works. The fact that HGTV is scripted entertainment doesn’t phase the viewer – the content seems plausible enough that it could be real, and the industry doesn’t provide anything better so by default HGTV has influence.
Inexperienced and unethical agents – Agent blunders can cost you a sale. But whether they were accidental (inexperienced) or on-purpose (unethical), they also cast a pall over the industry that causes participants to be frustrated and leery. You need to get good help to endure and triumph over these agents.
Escrow, title, and lenders – These folks have been over-worked since the beginning of time, and they make mistakes. Consumers need good help on their side just to minimize the impact.
Appraisals – A bottle of scotch doesn’t work any more – appraisers are independent and untouchable now, which means they can kill any deal. They are like baseball umpires – they can strike you out, even if the pitch was a ball, because it’s just their opinion.
Shoddy Repairs – Whether it’s to fix any historical work or corrections done to satisfy today’s repair requests, the house needs to be in decent shape to close escrow – or the sellers need to be willing to take a sizable discount. Having vendors who can quickly make impressive repairs for a reasonable fee is critical.
Packing and Moving – A great agent has ways to prevent your move from turning into an evacuation.
Gimmicks – This business has always been notorious for its deceitful gimmickry, and these days you need a supercharged BS-detector to get the truth.
Correctly Interpreting Market Conditions – Get the right answers to: Are we in a bubble? Should I wait? How much is this home really worth? Are there two birds in the bush?
Consumer Inexperience – This might be the biggest hurdle of all, and what causes buyers and sellers to rush a decision before doing enough investigation. Having proper guidance throughout the process is what relieves the stress and costly experiences you hear about!
Get Good Help – it’s never been so important. These are the highest home prices ever!
After providing home loans for over 30 years, I have seen most of the items on your list play out many times. I am a huge proponent of “Getting Good Help.” My wife and I recently sold our family home in Orange County to relocate to San Diego. Instead of going with a discount firm or listing the home myself (I have a broker’s license), we hired an experienced Realtor in our area (if Jim was in OC we would have listed with him!). I am confident that we received a better price by doing so and most importantly, the transaction closed because the Realtor’s adept handling of an inspection that turned up an unknown issue (which they all seem to do). Escrow is a stressful time for both buyer and seller so having Good Help to handle the inevitable issues in a diplomatic fashion can be the difference of closing or not.
Thanks Joel!
Agree 100%!
These reasons and more are critical to not potentially ruining your finances for a very, very long time! Buying or selling a house isn’t like choosing which big screen TV to buy and if you choose poorly, oh well. Just post a negative review somewhere, return it to the store and get another brand.
With a house, especially in California, there’s a substantial amount of money involved (at least it’s a substantial amount to the regular Joe/Jane) and you don’t want the deal to go sideways and end up being the one holding the empty bag with title to a money pit in a bad location!
So, we rely on the expertise of professionals that have handled hundreds or even thousands of these transactions over their career lifespan. Whereas the average person only buys/sells a house maybe once or twice in their lifetime!
Get good help, like Klinge Realty!