Yes, you should use a real estate agent to help you find and purchase your new home. For many people, buying a home is the single biggest purchase they will ever make. Whether you are a first-time homebuyer or have purchased homes in the past, it’s best to use a real estate agent, who is a licensed expert representing your best interest throughout the entire process.

Many people worry about the cost of using a real estate agent. But, because they are highly skilled and experienced at all the steps involved in the home buying process, any fees or commissions you might need to pay to a real estate agent will be well worth it.

When you find the right agent who is on your side; who assists you with all of the details; who coordinates on your behalf with the other people involved in the sale; and who helps you overcome any obstacles – your home buying process can actually be a smooth, stress-free experience.

7 REASONS TO USE A REAL ESTATE AGENT TO HELP YOU FIND A HOME:

1. Real Estate Agents Have Gone Through Hours of Schooling and Testing to Obtain Their Licenses

In Massachusetts, for example, a person who plans on obtaining their real estate license has to take 40 hours of classes before taking the real estate exam.

Then, they have to renew their license every two years by taking 12 hours of continuing education. Most states have similar requirements for real estate agents.

One of the reasons agents have to take these courses every few years is because the rules, regulations and government policies in the housing industry are constantly being updated.

Agents have to keep up with the changing times on important topics that affect renters, buyers, and sellers of homes.

Housing laws that protect homeowners against things like discrimination, safety issues in the homes, and unscrupulous dealings in the homebuying process are a huge part of these government policies that agents must be keeping on top of.

2. Real Estate Agents Know the Housing Market

It’s their job to be experts at what’s currently going on in the housing market. Most people just hear plenty of rumors, but don’t have that actual first-hand knowledge..

When you talk to a friend about your plans to purchase a new home, they’ll probably give you their opinion about what the housing market is like right now. They might have heard about another friend’s experience in buying a home recently.

That’s all well and good – and can be useful information to know. But, it was just one person or family’s experience buying a home.

A family member who’s friend’s cousin just bought a home might tell you about a completely different scenario. There’s so many factors that go into a home buying experience. It’s best to learn what you can from friends and family members with good intentions.

But realize that there are a lot of factors that affect every home buying experience.

And just like negative points of view and gossip spreads a lot more easily than positive information on social media, for instance, it can be the same when it comes to stories about people’s home buying experiences.

In general, people often don’t sink their teeth into a good story of something that went really well as much as they do with a story of someone’s experience of things going really wrong.

We can usually test this out any day of the week at work. Either in person or virtually. Just listen to a small group of people’s ‘water cooler’ conversations and watch how there’s usually a few people who always seem to be able to steer the conversation into negativity and complaining.

So in other words, stories you hear about other people’s home buying experiences might be skewed more towards all of the problems they faced, including everything that’s wrong with the housing market right now.

Yet all of the positives about the experience, like what they learned all along the way and what they gained in a new home, might be left out.

But, I digress.

Getting back to real estate agents’ role in all this, they actually work everyday in the industry. They are up to their elbows in it, so to speak. They have first-hand experience of what’s really going on.

They can share with you what they know about the current market conditions. They can guide you and help you answer questions such as:

• What are home prices like right now in your area?
• How many homes have sold in the past six months?
• What homes are actually selling for versus their asking price.
• How long are they staying on the market?
• What should you include in your offer to make it stand out among the rest?

One thing that real estate agents, and anyone really, cannot do is tell you exactly what’s going to happen six months from now or a year from now in the housing market.

Even the experts whose only job is to study the market and come up with future projections can’t always predict what’s going to happen.

Analysts study things like mortgage rates, housing prices, and economic conditions to try and help people plan for what’s going to happen with home sales in the near future.

But, there’s so many factors that affect this, it’s nearly impossible to make accurate predictions.

It’s easy to see this with COVID. Who would have ever predicted a worldwide pandemic would hit?

Real estate agents get asked all the time for their opinions on what turns the housing market is going to take. But other than general seasonality, like the market usually perks up in the Spring and slows down in the Fall for example, and trending economic conditions, they can’t really make any concrete predictions.

3. Real Estate Agents are Connected to the MLS System

MLS stands for multiple listing service, which is the database of available homes for sale in each state. Some states have more than one MLS system that are spread out over different regions within the state.

The MLS system is exclusive to real estate professionals. An average person cannot obtain access to it to look up homes for sale.

You might think that all you need to do to find a home is look up properties on one of those big sites like Realtor.com. But, keep in mind that Realtor.com only has access to some of the information in the MLS system.

When you click on one of the listings in Realtor.com or one of those other sites, you are not getting the full picture about that particular house.

Real estate agents work directly in their state’s MLS system everyday. So, when you work with a real estate agent, you’ll be able to know a lot more details about properties only agents are privy to.

Real estate agents also can provide you with reports that can be invaluable tools for when it’s time to place an offer on a house. For example, you can get a report on comparable homes that sold within the past six months.

You’ll be able to view information such as how long the house stayed on the market and what it sold for – compared to what it was listed at.

These types of reports give you really good insights on a home you’re looking at. For instance, has the home been sitting on the market a while? That could mean that the owners are ready to accept less than what they are asking for the home.

In comparison, when you see a house in a ‘hot’ market that just became available, that house could possibly stir up a bidding war among many potential buyers – and it could sell in a matter of a few days.

Then that report would have really useful data in reference to what type of offer you might want to place on that house. When you go down the list of homes in that report, do you see that most of them sold for just around the asking price? Or way above?

Then look even closer at that report to each individual home’s information and try to dig out other factors that might have made the difference in it’s selling price.

These types of scenarios are why it’s really beneficial to use a real estate agent to help you buy a house.

The information provided by the MLS, along with guidance from your agent, help you navigate the particular housing market in your area. It can help you seek out and find – and then get the best possible deal on your dream home.

4. Real Estate Agents Know Neighborhoods

Even though real estate agents can help people buy and sell homes across their entire state or in even more than one state, many are experts right in the particular area where their office is located.

Or they can be experts in a certain city, town, or neighborhoods – even if their office isn’t located there.

Just like we all know the ins and outs of the neighborhood where we’re currently living or have lived in the past – real estate agents know all the ins and outs of neighborhoods that they’re working in daily.

This is especially helpful if you’re a first-time homebuyer looking to purchase a home in an area that you know very little about. Or it could be in an area you have never even been to.

A real estate agent can give you insights and first-hand knowledge about the homes in that area or neighborhood that you couldn’t get on your own. You also can’t get this information from those big impersonal real estate sites like Realtor.com.

Local hands-on real estate agents can answer questions such as:

• Do all the homes in the area need flood insurance?
• Are there town bylaws on things like septic systems that could complicate the home buying process?
• Are local home builders actively building new homes in the neighborhood?

While most agents are experts in their areas and neighborhoods, many can also be experts at certain types of homes. Such as an agent who specializes in historic homes; or coastal homes; rehabs; or new construction.

5. Real Estate Agents Know the Ins and Outs of Home Buying Negotiation

Nowadays, when most people decide it’s time to purchase their new home, they usually turn to the internet and start looking at homes. It’s a great place to begin your home buying journey.

At this same time, you’re also going to want to find the right real estate agent. And you’ll need to find a mortgage lender, so you can get pre-approved and know how much house you can afford.

An agent will have a list of lenders they recommend. We’ll go into depth about these steps in another blog post coming up.

Meanwhile, let’s just say that you’ve searched and shopped and viewed potential homes for weeks or months – and now you’re ready to place an offer on the one you want.

This is where things get tricky and where a real estate agent can be an invaluable resource.

The home you want might be so in demand, for instance, that your offer is one of several the sellers get to choose from. How do you make it stand out from all the rest? How do you win the sellers over, while at the same time, not overspending on it in the process?

Your real estate agent will guide you throughout this whole process.

Agents are skilled at negotiating offers that win their clients their dream homes.

Let’s say you did win the offer on the home. Now, it’s the home inspection period. Depending on the rules in your state, you usually have around ten days for the home inspection period. You’ll learn all about home inspections in a later blog post.

During this time, you’ll get the home inspected and you’ll be able to back out of the deal within the ten day time frame. This is based on what was agreed upon in the offer.

You might decide to renegotiate for repairs or concessions if home inspection turns up some issues that are a concern to you.

Your real estate agent will again use their negotiating skills and knowledge to protect you during this step in the process.

And then there’s the purchase and sale agreement, the appraisal, the details of the closing, and much more that real estate agents are fully versed in. All steps that need good negotiating skills.

And as real estate agent’s, their main fiduciary duty – meaning they have to do this above all else according to law – is to protect your best interest throughout the entire process.

6. Real Estate Agents Know How to Overcome Obstacles

Unfortunately, obstacles and the home buying process tend to go hand in hand. That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of transactions that go smoothly without a hitch.

But, being that buying a home is such a huge undertaking, it’s no surprise that there are usually some bumps (or huge hills) along the way.

Real estate agents can help homebuyers through all of these obstacles:

• There could be issues with your bank that come up.
• The home inspection often turns up problems that no one could have predicted was wrong with the house.
• The title company might dig up an undisclosed seller, like an ex-spouse, whose name is on the house and who doesn’t want to sell.
• The appraisal could come back way over what you agreed to pay for the home.
• Your mortgage might not be ready in time for the closing.

(Don’t worry if you don’t know yet about what some of these issues mean. Keep an eye out for future posts that will teach you all about them.).

These are all hurdles that a real estate agent can help you through. They work closely with all of the people involved in the home buying process, like lenders and attorneys, to solve all of the problems that come up.

One thing to keep in mind is that we don’t suggest you hire the same real estate agent who is also the listing agent on the same house. This means that the agent is also serving as the agent for the person selling the house.

In our opinion at Michael and Sullivan Real Estate, although this might be perfectly legal and some people are fine with it, we don’t believe it’s a good idea.

When you are an agent representing a buyer, you need to go all in for that person and make sure they get the best possible house, at the least price, and on the best terms.

When you are an agent representing a seller, you need to go all in for the person and make sure they get the best possible amount of money for their home on the best terms.

Can you see why being a dual real estate agent, as it’s called when you represent both the buyer and the seller for the same house, is not a good idea? How can an agent really go all in for their client – if they are also representing the client on the other side of the transaction at the same time?

You’ll want to steer clear of agreeing to work with a real estate agent who is also representing the seller of a house you want to buy.

7. Real Estate Agents Educate Homebuyers

When you’re all settled into your new home after the entire home buying process is complete, you’ll sit back and be amazed at what you now know about this subject.

That’s because excellent real estate agents don’t only work at getting their clients into their new home, they also make sure to educate their clients every step of the way.

This is especially good to know if you’re a first-time homebuyer.

Agents usually provide their clients with really useful and important information and resources on all different subjects related to the homebuying process. Besides this, they also make sure to explain exactly what’s going on during each step that’s taking place.

That way, a first-time homebuyer gains not only knowledge, but confidence as well, throughout the process.

So, make sure to always ask your agent any questions you have. Even if you think it’s silly or something you should already know. If you have this question, it definitely means agents have been asked this same question before.

Thanks for reading!

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Stay tuned for more articles that will educate you on all the ins and outs of homebuying.

If you’d like to ask me any questions, email me anytime at: paula@michaelandsullivan.com.
Or call: 774-287-5852.