9 Reasons Why You Need A Realtor

A lot of people think that they do not need a real estate agent when they are buying or selling a home. Yes, you can go through the transaction by yourself. But there is a BIG possibility that you could be loosing a lot of money or perks and never know it. It is VERY risky going through a major transaction like buying a house without an agent to represent you. Anything can come up during your transaction and you need to have a guide to help you understand everything. You don't want to rely on Google for a generic answer. And if the other party is using an agent you DEFINITELY don't want to go through the transaction relying on the other party's agent. They will be working in their client's benefit not yours. THAT IS NOT YOUR AGENT! You have been warned! Here are 9 reasons why you need an agent when buying or selling a home.

1. Paperwork: An agent understands real estate contracts, knows what contract/amendments/exhibits that need to be used for different transactions. Agents know what should or should not be on a contract based off of the transaction. They also understand what paperwork that may be needed from the bank. And they also know what to put on a contract to protect your earnest money.

2. Experience: There are so many different variables in one transaction. An agent has seen a lot of them. They rely on experience not Google or family members who bought ONE house and think they understand real estate.

3. Negotiations: Real Estate negotiations require knowledge of real estate, market conditions, experience, real estate strategies, tactics, etc. It is not like negotiating some product you might buy off the street.

4. Pricing: If you are selling a house, you have to price your house right the 1st time. If it is priced too high it can become a stale listing and sit on the market for a while or never sell. Or you can price it too low and loose a lot of money. And you can spend too much on upgrades thinking you can get it back when you sell it, but you spend too much over the market value. You will loose money becasue the apprasail will not back up your price to get your money back, Realtors know how to price a house based off of market conditions, correct comps (not Zillow or other public real estate sites), etc. If buying a house, a Realtor knows what to offer on a house based off of the same reasons. You can't just randomly pick a number based off of what you want, or think it should be without correct real estate facts to back it up.

5. Understand Market Conditions: A Realtor understands the market because we (a good agent) study it all the time. Understanding market conditions is how you correctly price a house and how you know what to offer on a house.

6. Access to NEW listings: A Realtor has access to listings as soon as they hit the market. Not old listings on Zillow, Trulia, and other public websites. By the time you see a property on the internet, agents have already showed it to their clients. That's why a lot of times you don't get calls back from agents because they have received tons of phone calls on a house that already has offers on it, or probably already under contract.

7. Saves You From Wasting Time & Gas: Outside of looking at old listings on the internet all day, you could spend all day driving around looking at houses with "for sell" signs and all of the houses are no longer available. Agents leave signs up a lot of times while a house is under contract for advertising. Like I said agents have access to a new listing immediately. With an agent you know you are viewing houses that you can actually put an offer on. And with selling a house you are not wasting time with your house sitting on the market because of incorrect pricing, or not understanding how to negotiate if the buyer has an agent that knows what they are doing.

8. Facilitate: A good real estate agent facilitates all parties in a transaction. There are a lot of parties involved in one ttransaction. You need everyone to do their job right and in a timely fashion. Everything is on a time limit. You cannot afford to waste ONE DAY under contract! You do not know what needs to be facilitated. A good agent know what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done. An agent will stay on top of it so you don't loose time or miss contingencies when you are under contract.

9: Representation: If the other party has an agent and you don't, you could possibly be loosing out on a lot of money and perks you could have had and not even know it. Basically having representation from someone who knows real estate law is someone you need to have your back.