With so much information already circling the Internet, prospective homebuyers often ask themselves why they should even bother finding a real estate agent, when they can easily catch all the tips and tricks online. However, purchasing or selling a property is not a simple deal, as there are often many strings attached to it. Four buyers’ agent, on the other hand, can help you avoid potential pitfalls, while providing invaluable assistance in finding the property for you, facilitating your mortgage, negotiating a contract, and closing the deal. Let’s go more in detail regarding the role of realtors in your luxury home purchase.
An agent has the experience
If you hire a professional to whom buying and selling real estate is their bread and butter, you don’t need to know anything about it. As one smart and very rich man said, when you hire people smarter than you, it proves that you’re smarter than they are. However, the key is to find the right person. On the financial side, they cost nearly all the same, so why not hire a professional with more experience and local knowledge than you, and spend your precious time on doing something you love?
Doing the heavy lifting
When hired, your buyers’ agent will take the bulk of the spam out of your property showings and visits. If you’ve set your sights on buying a new luxury home in an upscale suburb like Sydney’s Bellevue Hill, your agent will keep the builder’s agent on distance, preventing them from calling you with new offers every few days. If you’re selling, your realtor will filter all those phone calls that lead nowhere, recognizing serious buyers at instant.
Neighbourhood wisdom
Real estate agents either have the knowledge or know where to find the relevant info about your neighbourhood. They can identify the comparable sales of similar higher-end homes in the area, also providing more data on schools, demographics, but also the zoning plans for the future. For example, you may have heard that a luxury home down the road was on the market for $400,000, but an agent may find out that it was upgraded and sold for $375,000 after 65 days on the listings.
Hedge from current trends
Going with a realtor can also hedge you from current national housing trends, and put you on the longer end of the bargain. As far as Australia is concerned, the NSW parliament recently voiced that the bump of homes available for sale has been unable to chip at Sydney’s inflated property prices. On the other hand, some industry commentators like Adam Farrar from Shelter NSW told the Upper House inquiry that boosts in housing supply “would not turn around the Titanic”. Truth be told, even with the help of an experienced buyers’ agent in Sydney, The Harbour City has always been a tough market to buy in, being historically the best-performing capital with the country’s most expensive suburbs and the fastest moving markets. One thing is for certain, on such rough property seas, a knowledgeable realtor is the one to navigate your purchase to one of sheltered coves.
Valuable price guidelines
Contrary to what many people might believe, realtors do not set prices for buyers or sellers, but an agent can help to guide you to make the right choice for yourself. For example, if a listing is at 7%, an agent has a 7% vested interest in the sale, but the client has 93% interest. Selling agents, in the other hand, will ask buyers to weigh all the data they’ve gathered and choose a price. By comparing information on market supply, location demand and the conditions, the buyers’ agent will devise a negotiation strategy.
Professional networking
It’s a buyers’ agent’s job to network with other professionals, many of whom offer services that you need in order to purchase. While their legal liability constrains them to directly recommend a certain individual or a company over another, they know which vendors have a good reputation of efficiency, competency and competitive pricing. In addition, agents can give you a list of references with whom they’ve cooperated and provide you with a valuable insight to help you make a sound decision.
Even for an affluent buyer, purchasing a home in a fast-moving luxury property market can still be a stressful and overwhelming process. Even though it’s possible to go alone, having a professional buyers’ agent journeyman on board, makes the whole endeavour less complicated.
