L.A. Home Buyers and Renters, Appreciate Your Realtor@

There are good and bad eggs in every basket, so I wonder why the services of the real estate agent, especially when it comes to home buyers and renters, is often taken for granted and under-appreciated.

Where else do you get the kind of services we offer and the results we provide at no cost to you? Yes of course agents get paid by the seller (or landlord) and quite well depending on the area we cover and properties we sell, but we often end up spending our time, gas and energy for no compensation and many times not even a “thank you.”

Again, there are agents out there who give our profession a bad name, but there are many more who are hard-working, diligent, and focused on doing the best for their clients. Here are some of the things a good agent will do for you the buyer or renter at absolutely no cost to you and no guarantee of a paycheck for them:

  • Help you to understand the home buying process which will involve ensuring that you know what kind of property you can purchse after talking with a lender. Nothing wastes more time or causes more frustration than chasing around and finding that you cannot buy the property you are interested in. If you don’t have a lender your agent will help you find one.
  • Source properties which fit your criteria. There is nothing more time-consuming that scouring the internet looking for homes that may not be right for you and may even no longer be available. All you have to do is look at the listings your agents sends and check off the ones you are interested in.
  • Set up appointments to view your selected properties. Sometimes you may want to see a few, and your agent will handle the scheduling with the different listing agents.  All you have to do is show up. Often your agent will drive you around.
  • Negotiate the contract. Once you have decided on a property there is way more to making an offer than throwing a number out there. Most properties are going into multiple offer situations, and your agent is strategic in helping you make the best one, and guiding you through the counter-offer stage which will almost definitely follow.
  • Once successful you are going to rely on your Realtor’s services even more. Inspections will be ordered, results interpreted, further negotiations conducted and a pile of paperwork processed.
  • Most of the pressure is on your agent to keep the process moving forward.

Renters get the same overall service, obviously without the escrow process, inspections and pile of paperwork. The time involved may be less, but the compensation to the Realtor® is accordingly less. Finding a rental property in this tight market can be extremely frustrating, and for anything under $3,000 a month you will be best served to look on your own. For anything over that you will be surprised how much easier your life will be if you use the free services of an agent.

The real estate business is a highly stressful one, and the Realtor® is an independent employee of a brokerage who doesn’t get paid unless a transaction is completed. Again, we spend countless hours, a great deal of energy, and gallons of gas with no guarantee of compensation, and a good agent will treat you like their best friend throughout the process, because a good agent loves what they do.  All we ask is that you understand what it is we do and that you appreciate your Realtor®

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