Frequently Asked Questions
Real Estate FAQ
For all my clients, I strive to make the real estate transaction process as carefree as possible. Afterall, there’s already a lot of money on the line and it doesn’t help that the real estate transaction process can feel excessively complicated from various state laws and lending requirements.
This is why a key part of my role as your Buyer or Sellers agent is to eliminate any anxiety that my clients might feel due to a sense of being lost in the woods, especially if they’ve never experienced the process before. I’m an educator, and I work hard to ensure that you’re well informed of what to expect when buying or selling a home so that understanding what’s ahead of you isn’t as scary. That teaching begins even before we start working together.
Here are some answers to very common questions that new buyers or sellers might have about real estate. When you’re ready to know more, give me a call!
Questions About Real Estate Agents
What is a Real Estate Agent?
A Real Estate agent is a licensed professional for people who wish to buy or sell a property such as a home, commercial office, or land - all of which are known as “real” property.
The Real Estate Agent represents the best interests of their client(s) whenever any agreement to buy or sell a property is made. They facilitate the deal between by negotiating contracts on behalf of their client, managing time-sensitive steps of the transaction, and by educating their clients on the many, often tricky, nuances of transacting real estate. A knowledgeable and experienced agent will also provide their clients with information about local areas, trends in real estate markets, and is often networked with other industry professionals to help provide a variety of services at critical times during a transaction.
What is a REALTOR®?
It’s common to hear the terms real estate agent and REALTOR® used interchangeably. Is there a difference? The answer is Yes and No. Not all real estate agents are REALTORS®. However, all REALTORS® are real estate agents. The title of REALTOR® is specifically a designation for someone who is also a member of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR).
Real estate agents, like myself, who bear the designation of REALTOR® are bound by a strict Code of Ethics, which is a condition of continued membership with the NAR. It’s essentially a set of ideals and standards of quality that one must follow to be a part of the association. The NAR also bestows certifications in specialized fields, such as my Pricing Strategy Advisor certification. They also provide ongoing education for their real estate agents to ensure their agents remain knowledgeable about the industry and that their skills remain sharp.
Why should I have a Real Estate agent?
FAR too many reasons to list here, but we’ll cover the highlights. Buying and selling a home is STRESSFUL!! Not only are there hundreds of laws and regulations that govern the selling of real property, but there are often incredibly large sums of money on the table. It’s the perfect recipe for excitable emotions and significant financial risk when any stumble in the process can not only ruin the deal but also result in heavy financial losses.
Having a knowledgeable Real Estate Agent like HomesDW at your side is essential. We’ll guide you through the entire process from start to finish, and all the while we’ll be watching out for your interests - both financially and peace of mind.
A Real Estate Agent can also schedule private showings and host you for a tour of a home that you’re interested in buying. No waiting or looking for “open houses”.
What’s the cost for a Real Estate agent?
Are you getting ready to buy a home? Well, guess what? You pay NOTHING for our services.
There is absolutely zero cost to you to hire HomesDW when you’re looking to make any property purchase. Our commissions are paid entirely by the seller only after you’ve closed on your deal.
And fortunately, even if you’re looking to sell, our pricing is competitive. There are no upfront costs for our services and we don’t get paid unless you do, so we’ll be working hard to get you the best deal for your property.
It’s a no-brainer whether you’re looking to buy or sell, so what are you waiting for? Give us a call, today.
How do I begin?
All you need to do is reach out. Once you connect with us, we’ll set up a meeting to understand how we can help your realty needs, and then we’ll guide you into the next steps from there. We can meet over the phone, in the office, or even over coffee. It’ll be as easy as talking to a friend. You can leave your credit card and checkbook at home; they won’t be needed.
Are there any contracts or commitments?
When you ask us to be your Agent, you’ll be asked to review and sign what’s called an “Exclusive Right to Buy”, which is a very standard contract used by all real estate agents. As mentioned above, an Agent’s wage isn’t earned until you close on a deal, and depending on the real estate services you need, this can be as quick as a single weekend or as long as several months before an Agent can earn income. The work performed by our Agents is in good faith that they can be at your side when the deal comes to a close, and the contract you sign only helps to protect the Agent from bad faith intentions. It does NOT obligate you or commit you to buy or sell any property that you don’t wish to transact.
Questions About Agents:
Questions About Home Buying
How do I thank my Agent?
With HomesDW, we’re so certain that you’ll have a positive experience that we’ll guarantee your satisfaction with our service. Tipping is NOT expected because the relationships we form with our clients are often long-lasting and extend well beyond the close of any real estate deal. We almost exclusively rely on word of mouth for growing our business, and so if you’re feeling overjoyed with our service, we’d welcome you to please shout it from the top of a mountain. Recommend us to your friends and family. Write a 5-star review. Send us a quote about your experience that we can post on our website. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook. And most importantly, please stay in touch and let us know when we can have the good fortune to work with you again… or even if you just want to grab some coffee!
First Time Home Buying
What’s the process to buy a home?
It’s fairly extensive, so we’ll give a brief overview until you can talk more about it with your Agent.
If you need a loan, you’ll need to speak with a Mortgage Lender to first understand how big of a loan you qualify for and what price range of home you can purchase. Give us a call and we are happy to recommend a Lending Agent to you. We are not compensated for this recommendation, but we routinely work with Lending Agents and can recommend some based on experience and feedback from others.
Your Agent will collect every bit of information about what you want in a home and will set up a listing search in the MLS based on that criteria.
Next, you’ll let your Agent know which homes you’d like to see and will then tour those homes with your Agent.
When you find a home you’d like to buy, your Agent will deliver an offer to purchase to the sellers. If the offer is accepted, you’ll officially be under contract to buy the home. However, there will often be a lengthy period of more steps to complete before you can actually buy the home.
When an offer is accepted, you’ll be asked to make a deposit, which is called “earnest money” and is a good-faith payment towards purchasing the home. Since there is a lengthy process before you close on a deal with the sellers, this earnest money helps to protect the sellers from their risk of refusing other potential buyers during that time. So long as you meet all of your commitments in the contract, this money is then used towards the final purchase of the home. However, it does mean you should expect to have at least this much cash available when looking to buy a home. It is not typically part of a loan and is often 1-3% of the value of the home, which can be $2000 - $5000 dollars or more that you’ll need to hand to the sellers. Depending on the terms of your offer, this money will be refunded to you if the conditions of the home are inadequate or your loan is unable to be fulfilled. However, if you default on the terms of the offer, then this money becomes the property of the sellers.
Once under contract with an offer to purchase, you’ll complete what’s called due diligence to verify that the home is suitable and safe for you and your family. Some examples include:
Review HOA documents to assess the state of the association and neighborhood
Hire a licensed Home Inspector to verify the condition of the home.
An appraiser will assess the true value of the home. This person is most often hired by your Lending Agent.
As needed, there may be other land surveys, soil reports, flood assessments, etc. that can be completed.
Finally, your loan application and the property will then be evaluated by a loan underwriter whose responsibility is to either approve or deny your loan. As soon as this is approved, though, then the final step is…
Close on your home. This is the day that you and the sellers will complete the deal and exchange funds for the transfer of keys and title of the property. Before this occurs, your Agent will take you for one final walk-through of the property just to confirm that the state and condition of the home is as expected.
Step 8 is to celebrate. No instructions are needed, for this one!
What’s the MLS?
You may hear this term get tossed around when looking for a property to purchase. The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is very simply the main data base used by all Real Estate Agents for listing a property for sale. When you use our search tool to look for a new home, the MLS is the data base from which we are pulling our information.