Emotions might make Mariah Carey feel good (yes, we’re dating ourselves there!) but when you are feeling them in the midst of your real estate transaction, that is generally not worth singing about. Having a Real estate agent as intermediary between heated parties is a good thing, however, and one would think that after a dozen years in the business, we would know that. So why is it that Real estate agents rarely heed their own advice and choose to handle their personal real estate transactions themselves? We recently embarked upon a family purchase of a vacation property in Northern Michigan and we chose to do so - you guessed it! - without a local Real estate agent. Here’s why that’s a terrible idea, and why we’ll never go without a Real estate agent again.
LESSON #1 - WE NEED AN EMOTIONAL BARRIER.
Emotions have the capability of running high in any real estate transaction. But picture this: a Real estate agent in Florida falls in love with a home in Michigan, listed by the homeowner, also a Real estate agent. Our first thought: “This will be great! We can have direct lines of communication with the seller!” The seller was acting as Real estate agent for themselves and we were able to act in a limited capacity as Real estate agent for our side. Sounds like a great, easy, direct situation, doesn’t it? WRONG. Let us count the ways:
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Negotiating price is but the first of many little negotiations throughout a real estate transaction. In hindsight, the initial price negotiation was a breeze compared to the next several.
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You also might have to negotiate furniture, as we did. Imagine the temper flare up potential when someone is being told their furniture isn’t worth what they want for it?
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The inspection may spur on discussions of repairs : Are they willing to pay for it? Are they willing to adjust the price for it? Having someone else in the middle of these discussions would have smoothed a lot of ruffled feathers in our situation. When someone has put years of work and money into a home but the inspection says it’s barely passable, feelings get hurt, tempers flare, people get defensive. And a defensive seller is not a fun one with whom to be negotiating.
When you hire a Real estate agent, part of their job is to be an emotional buffer so that you do not say or do something you shouldn’t or wouldn’t normally. Your Real estate agent should mitigate your emotional reaction, come prepared with realistic expectations and solutions, and be able to gauge the situation and act in your best interest and on your behalf. Passion simply gets in the way of us being able to look out for ourselves in the best possible way, especially in such weighty, important, and expensive decisions.
LESSON #2 - WE NEED EXPERTS IN THE LOCAL MARKET.
This is something we preach to out-of-towners interested in purchasing in Sarasota. In fact, plenty of our own clients are real estate brokers in other states. Most Real estate agents act on their own behalf when buying or selling in their own local market, but when stepping into another market it is a very different story. This rings true for anyone, anywhere, house-shopping in a market not their own. Here’s what you’ll miss if you don’t have a local expert working on your behalf:
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Long before you get to the offer stage, having a local Real estate agent is super helpful when it comes to things like: Is this property priced appropriately? What is the history of this property? Local Real estate agents can access historical documents, past listings of the home, scads of information about the neighborhood, community, city, etc. that you as an individual (or a Real estate agent not licensed in that state!) cannot access. You are playing poker with a half a deck, and you’re playing someone who has a full one.
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You don’t know local customs and expectations when it comes to who pays for what. Who chooses the escrow company? Who pays for the title fees and document tax? These vary from state to state, even sometimes county to county, and when you’re buying or selling outside your local market, having someone to tell you what’s expected is very helpful so you don’t pay costs not customarily associated with your side of the deal.
LESSON #3 - WE NEED HELP.
Here’s something we know from the Real estate agent side of things, but that we hadn’t personally experienced - at least in a very long time: buying a home across the country from where you ARE is hard. Our Couturiers work immeasurably hard for their clients who don’t live here. We have pulled in patio furniture ahead of a tropical storm, attended inspections and walk-throughs (and FaceTimed clients during these, too!), we have researched and recommended repairmen for whom we can personally vouch, we have picked up clients at airports… the list goes on and on.
Guess what you don’t have if you fail to hire a local Real estate agent? Anyone to do any of that stuff. So guess who has to do it? You. And in our case: US! Because of this, we got inspection results by phone and a dense and mostly incomprehensible report (trust us, we look at these all the time), and had to make a special trip across the U.S. just to do a pre-closing walk-through! The bottom line is: you’re missing out on help you desperately need if you choose to forego a Real estate agent. Especially if you are buying or selling somewhere far from where you live.
THE DUCK ANALOGY
As Real estate agents, we frequently refer to ourselves with a couple analogies: The first is the ringleader of the circus/conductor of the orchestra. These are pretty interchangeable and basically just boil down to the fact that we make disparate pieces come together into a smooth and cohesive final product. At our direction, buyers and sellers are working on their to-dos (sign this, repair that), title work is being done, closing documents are being prepared, money is being moved, etc. And at the end, you have a masterpiece: a completed transaction.
But never before have we personally felt the Duck analogy quite so much. It goes like this: Real estate agents are like ducks - from the surface, it’s just smooth sailing, but under the water, their legs are moving like mad. If you ever think your Real estate agent is doing nothing, let them go and you’ll quickly realize all they were doing just so this duck could keep moving forward! Without one, we became the legs of the duck with our heads under water, and it was tiring indeed!
The best day was the day closing documents were signed and keys were handed over, because the difficulty we brought upon ourselves by trying to do it all was over. And finally the fun can begin.
