Mickey Lackey, REALTOR

Five Advanced Home Buyer Services You Should Expect from Your Agent

Any real estate agent can show any home buyer any listed home. Everyone knows that by now, so it's no wonder that many buyers don't place any importance on selecting which agent they work with, they just want to buy a house. It's incredibly understandable, because the choice of a selling agent SEEMS irrelevant.

It's the ADVANCED services that an agent offers that can make such a difference in a home buying experience, not only during the actual purchase transaction, but each and every year thereafter, and culminating in a more profitable transaction when it is time to SELL the house.

The time a buyer takes to interview an agent to help them is perhaps the BEST investment they can make. And it is a step that so many buyers fail to take, wanting to jump right in and search for pictures of houses online. That course of action often leads to an over-excited call to the listing agent (who represents the seller) of the home that has the best pictures. Not clever.

So what Advanced services should the informed buyer look for?  The following are suggestions that I know have helped my clients make a better purchasing decision:

1.  Familiarity with local lenders. Find an agent who has several "go-to" lenders.  Lenders ALL want ANY business, but frankly, most lenders have special areas of expertise and areas that they aren't quite up-to-date on. Your agent should be able to lead you to a lender with special knowledge in your loan type. Your agent will know which lenders provide good service and communication, and which lenders have historically delayed closings, sometimes causing the seller to refuse to extend the contract, which causes buyers to lose their dream home, and the money they've invested in it so far, thru no fault of their own.

2. Experience in construction or remodeling. Not every agent is a former homebuilder or remodeler, nor should they be expected to have been, but little working knowledge of the craft can be a great asset to a buyer wanting to make improvements or modifications after the fact, for instant equity. There are fabulous buys available in the market where the seller can't or won't cure functional obsolescence in a home, and the savvy buyer that negotiates a good purchase on these homes and does cure the problem is way ahead of the equity game. The agent who can help advise on what can be done, and it's approximate cost, and the value it will add to the home is worth their weight in gold. Conversely, if an agent can advise which projects will cost more than the value they add will save a buyer from a money pit.

3. Experience on BOTH sides of the transaction. Every seller has their own motivations, as does every buyer. There are a lot of agents who specialize in exclusive buyer agency or exclusively work for sellers. I think it is possible to lose sight of what might be important on the other side of the transaction, making it possible to get blind-sided in negotiations. The most powerful tool in any negotiations is the ability to see the decision from the other side.

4. Due-diligence research. Once you have made your top-pick selection, your agent should be willing to research the neighborhood of interest. Is your selection the largest house in the neighborhood, or the smallest? Where does the seller's asking price fall in the range of homes sold there? Is the tax evaluation from the Central Appraisal District out of line with the surrounding homes? When was the home last on the market? Has it sold an unusual amount of times in the past several years?

5. Willingness to advise a client. There's an undercurrent of "liability avoidance" with a lot of agents. Understandably, we can be SUED. Horror stories abound. Many agents feel it is best to NOT recommend a lender or a home inspector or a termite inspector, etc. and opt to simply hand the client a list of all possible service providers. (That way, it is the client's fault if they pick a bad one.)  The service-oriented agent understands that there is also a liability in knowing that there are good ones and not-so-good ones on the "list", and opts to recommend service providers who have proven themselves worthy by past performance. The word "client" implies professional advice. Advice does not have to be dictatorial, the client can always choose an alternate course of action.

Take home message? Your choice of agent MATTERS. A LOT. Finding, interviewing and signing with an agent is the wise buyers' FIRST step.