"Must Haves" in Your Real Estate Professional - Part II

by Dan Jensen
Relocation Services Director - Equity Northwest Properties Group

When You're Buying Your Home...

Last Friday, we talked about the skills necessary in your Real Estate Professional when you're wanting to market, promote, and find a Buyer for your home.

This week, we'll move to the other side of the table and talk about the skills you "Must Have" in your Agent when you're searching for a home to purchase.

1.)  A significant knowledge about and awareness of the real estate market where you want find your home

Every community has both "highly" visible and "hardly" visible houses that are For Sale. Just about any Agent will have the ability to check the area Multiple Listing Service to see what homes are being offered for sale, just as you have that ability with numerous online search sites. Where YOUR RE Pro should step things up a notch is to also have a significant awareness of those available homes that are Hardly Visible and that require an on-going working knowledge of the search resources and networks where more and better information about homes that are for sale might be found.

For Sale By Owner, recent Expired listings that haven't yet come back onto the market, "pocket" listings that fellow professionals know about, but that are not yet listed on any MLS, and so on.

Your professional should also have their finger on the pulse of the real estate market trends in order to know which of the neighborhoods are showing the most activity, where finding for a seller that No One Knows about may well be considering making a move and will, therefore, be putting their home up for sale soon.

Area market alertness and constant vigilance on your behalf will increase the number of houses that are available to you during your hunt for that next GREAT home!

2.)  Availability to provide help within your timetable

Life happens to us all! No way around it, just when we most need to be available to accomplish an important task or service, life will dish up 17 distractions, challenges, or outright roadblocks. Your real estate professional faces "Life" too, but every professional should have a solid, well-oiled Back Up Plan to be sure that if Life happens when YOU need their help, there will ALWAYS be a team mate available to jump in if life prevents them from personally serving you.

Every solid professional in real estate has seen to a Plan B back up plan to be sure their Clients will always have exceptional service available. Many professionals have developed Teams specifically for the purpose of great depth of knowledge and availability than any one RE Broker can provide you.

3.)  No surprise here... YOUR Broker Should NOT disappear after the home has been purchased!!!

Is your Agent available to answer questions TODAY, even though you're not buying, selling, or investing in real estate?

Has it been months since you moved into your new home, and you haven't heard a word from your Agent?

Did your Agent update you each year since you purchased your home to let you know what your current market value is?

Are there periodic reports made available to you about your community real estate trends, opportunities, and community "Big Events" that might have an impact on you, your family, and your real estate plans?

Have there been any offers from your Broker to discuss ways for you to reduce your monthly mortgage expense, payoff your home early, add value to your home, and protect the value of your home?

These are all benefits your chosen professional can and will make available to you, not only when you're in the midst of a real estate transaction, but ON GOING!

Next week, "Have you ever considered becoming a Real Estate Investor?"