When buying your first home, there is a lot to think about. It’s a huge investment and you will probably be nervous and excited, wanting to make sure you get it right. Your real estate agent needs to be helpful and guide you through this process, and you want to be able to rest assured that they have your best interests at heart.
A good real estate agent should have certain traits, expertise and knowledge that help put you at ease when you purchase a new home. We’ve come up with some key elements you should look for in a real estate agent, to ensure you are dealing with someone who will help you through the buying process.
Transparent about the process of selling
Your real estate agent should be honest and upfront throughout the entire selling process. For example, they should let you know if the seller might be open to accepting a pre-auction offer.
Throughout the entire buying process, your real estate agent should keep you up to date about what is happening with the property, so you can stay aware of what’s going on.
Your real estate agent should be a great communicator
Whenever you go to look at a property, the real estate agent assisting you should be able to walk you through the building and fill you in on information about the home.
If the property needs upgrading, they should let you know what can be done. They should also give you detailed information about the property’s past.
Extremely knowledgeable about the property
As well as letting you know about all the positive attributes of the home, your real estate agent should inform you of any downsides.
This might include what was found during previous inspections, such as information relating to the building’s structure, pests and strata titles. If you are unsure about this information, you can contact a company like Compare Inspections; we can provide you with a database of local inspectors who will be happy to come along to the property and give you an in-depth report on it before you buy.
Having building and pest inspections is vital before purchasing a property and all information (such as heritage overlays, caveats or easements) should be disclosed by the real estate agent before the sale.
To check whether your real estate agent is up to scratch, you can ask them questions about the boundary lines of the property, the property’s history, what renovations have been carried out on the home and whether they have the floor plans for you to have a look at.
Professionalism is key
You should be able to tell if a real estate agent is professional or not simply by looking at the quality of the photographs used to advertise the property. These photographs should be taken by a professional photographer and preferably at dusk or another time of day that makes the property look its best.
The property should also be in top shape, and the real estate agent should have briefed the owners before showing their home as to what small things can be quickly improved to make the property stand out. These include things such as a tidy up of the garden or a clean out of certain areas of the home.
The brochure should also be professionally written and the relevant documents for the sale of the home prepared in advance.
If any of these elements are missing, it should send up red flags about the expertise of the real estate agent.
Great service from beginning to end
A great real estate agent should really give you perfect service from beginning to end during the sales process. Even when the sales process is complete, a good real estate agent will follow up with you to ensure you are happy with everything. And before you move in, the real estate agent should double check everything is up to scratch.
A great real estate agent really makes the difference when purchasing a new property. They can take the stress out of buying a new home and make you feel comfortable with the process.
By Darel McBride
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