Is Your Bay Area Realtor Protecting Your Interests?
You want your bay area realtor to be a licesend professional Realtor®. Let’s begin by making clear the distinction between a real estate agent and a realtor. Not every real estate agent is a realtor and nor are they required to be.
Those real estate agents who wish to use the title of Realtor must join a local Realtor® association and join the National Association of Realtors.
While a real estate agent has many duties (loyalty, confidentiality, full disclosure, reasonable care and competence, for example), a professional Realtor has far greater obligations to his or her clients and protecting your interests must be at the top of that list.
Is your bay area Realtor® showing you all the finance options available?
Where you live is an important variable, as is how long you plan to stay put. Other variables can make certain mortgage loans better suited to a home buyer’s circumstances and loan amount.
Your bay area realtor® needs to make sure you are aware of your options, whether it is a fixed-rate loan, an adjustable rate mortgage, an FHA loan, a VA loan, a USDA loan or a bridge loan.
Some homeowners need predictability in their payments. Some with less than perfect credit scores might benefit from an adjustable rate. Government sponsored loans are also available for those who qualify, and for those who are purchasing a home before selling their own, a gap or bridge loan may be just the ticket.
Has your Realtor® discussed the best time of the year to buy a home in the Bay Area?
To this point, you should know that nationally, median home values rose by 7.2%, whereas in the Bay Area, they rose by 4.2%. For a buyer, though, the best time of the year is likely to be the Fall and Winter.
Why? Because the local housing market starts to attract buyers beginning in May and because June, July and August are such good times for viewings, demand tends to lift prices during that period. Better deals are often struck between September and April.
Has your Realtor® talked about multiple offer opportunities?
Your bay area realtor should share that these opportunities may include escalation addendums, waiving the inspection contingency, partially waiving the appraisal, making the earnest money non-refundable and releasing it to the seller, or even waiving the HOA review.
If you are a buyer, what are your sales contract options?
At this point you might well be wondering what is a real estate purchase agreement? In real estate, a purchase agreement is a document outlining the purchase price and other conditions associated with transfer of title.
These real estate contracts hold critical information, including the purchase price, mortgage contingency provisions, the earnest money deposit, down payment requirements, and other terms that summarize the conditions of the transfer of title or sale and if your bay area realtor® is a licensed professional Realtor®, they’ve attended ongoing education classes in contracts and negotiation.
Perhaps the most central point of this contract is that once a buyer has an option to purchase a property, the seller cannot sell that property to anyone else. If the buyer fails to buy the property within the specified time-frame, the seller keeps the money used to buy the option.
Is your realtor adept at negotiating?
Bay Area Market Reports shares many of the principles of real estate negotiation.
- If you find a home you would like to buy, disregard the initial asking price and make the offer you want to make. You never know until you ask.
- Make concessions grudgingly.
- Strong emotions often have a negative impact on your position.
- If the other party feels disrespected, you should not be surprised if they kill the deal for that reason alone.
- Every negotiation is unique to the market.
- If you don’t know how much competitive bidding there will be on the property, and there is a set time for offer delivery, consider writing two or more offers with your agent, with the understanding that if no other offers show up, the low offer will be presented, but if a certain number of other offers show up, the high offer will be presented.
- Know when to walk away.
Has the Realtor® provided a “Seller’s To Do List”?
Some of the items you ought to expect to see on such a list would be:
- Objectively evaluate every room
- Clean and replace items as needed
- Dust everything
- Maximize visual floor space
- Remove furniture you can live without
- Store toys out of sight
- Use pillows and throws
- Remove extra leaves from the dining room table
- Make the beds and vacuum daily
- Remove laundry
- The bathroom needs to shine!
With the previous item in mind, your bay area Realtor® helps you with what you need to do to prepare your home for the photographer
- Clean and clear kitchen and sink
- Clean and clear everything in your bathroom(s)
- Replace burned out light bulbs
- Light up the entire house
- Open all window treatments
- Remove unnecessary decorations
- Remove floor mats and runners
- Turn off ceiling fans, TVs and computer screens
- Remove all personal photographs
- Put away your shoes and jackets
- Remove all pet items
- Tidy up the yard and landscaping
- Sweep and keep swept the patio, deck and porch
- Move your cars from the road and driveway
- Hide all garbage cans
- Hide all lawn equipment
- Open up your patio umbrellas
If you’re selling, your bay area Realtor® should provide a 3D virtual tour of your home
A virtual 3D tour is one of the most immersive ways to take in the experience of a property. Professionals in the Bay Area can set this up as if you were actually right there, walking through the home.
That last item caught your eye, didn’t it? Your Realtor® should know when to walk away. So should you.
Even if you are desperate to sell, you need to know when to step away. Sometimes, for instance, a buyer may ask for concessions that you feel are unreasonable. And you might just be right. The buyer would be well-advised to avoid asking for repairs that cost under $100 or other minor cosmetic imperfections.
Another warning sign is if the buyer asks you to include your personal property in the asking price. Yet another flashing caution sign is when you find out a buyer lied about proof of funds or did not properly put an earnest money deposit forward. Negotiations on your home sale can stretch on throughout the entire escrow process, and issues and disagreements may come out of the woodwork.
The bottom line is that your professional Bay Area Realtor needs to impress you with the ability to smooth the way through the often hazardous pathway of transacting a real estate transaction. We hope this check list has been helpful to you.