Real Estate Agent Types

When buying property, the most important decision you make may very well be who you hire to represent you — and there are a number of types of real estate professionals you may want to consider. Having an experienced real estate agent on your side can make it easier to find a home you can afford. While you may think that all real estate agents are the same, there are some key differences that you need to be aware of. Knowing what type of real estate professional you need can eliminate some of the stress and headaches involved in buying a home.

Real Estate Agent

In the simplest terms, a real estate agent is someone who’s completed the necessary requirements to become licensed to sell property in their state. Every state requires real estate agents to have a license, which usually involves taking classes and passing a state-administered exam. Real estate agents are employed by a real estate broker and are not allowed to work independently.

Generally, a real estate agent can act on behalf of the buyer, the seller or both. A buyer’s agent represents your interests throughout the home-buying process, from finding the right house to the closing. Typically, their duties include showing you homes, submitting purchase offers, negotiating with the seller, writing up the sales agreement and helping to arrange the closing. Depending on which agency you choose, you may have to sign an agreement stating that the buyer’s agent represents you exclusively.

A seller’s agent, also known as a listing agent, works with individuals who are trying to sell their home. Their job is to represent the seller’s interests and facilitate the sale of the property. A seller’s agent may be responsible for researching comps in your neighborhood to help you decide on an asking price, listing your, conducting open houses and negotiating offers. Typically, most if not all of the contact you have with the seller will be through their listing agent.

In some situations, the buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent are the same person. This is known as dual agency. Typically, an agent has to get consent from both the seller and the buyer before entering into a dual agency role, since it has the potential to create a conflict of interest. Dual agency isn’t allowed in every state so you need to be aware of what the laws are before seeking out this type of agent.

The National Association of Realtors also offers specialized designations and certifications to help real estate agents gain expertise in specific areas. These include green homes, age-restricted communities, luxury homes, military relocation, second homes and diversity.

Real Estate Broker

A real estate broker is someone who’s licensed to run their own real estate company. The licensing requirements vary from state to state but generally, you need to have experience as a real estate agent, complete advanced real estate courses and pass a state-administered exam to become a broker. Some states may allow licensed attorneys to obtain a broker’s license without relevant experience as an agent, as long as they can pass the broker’s exam.

Real estate brokers can work independently or employ one or more licensed real estate agents. In some cases, a real estate broker may choose to work for another real estate agency as an associate broker. Associate brokers have the same qualifications as an independent broker or agency owner but they’re not responsible for the other real estate agents they work with. The day-to-day duties of a real estate broker may vary but their primary role is to act as a go-between for buyers, sellers and their respective agents.

Realtor

Though you may think that “realtor” is just another word for a real estate agent, it’s actually a term with a distinct meaning. The term “REALTOR®” is a registered trademark of the National Association of Realtors. In order for a licensed real estate agent to use this title, they must belong to the NAR and be in good standing. A realtor performs the same functions and duties as any other real estate agent but they’re required to adhere to a specific code of ethics.

The Code of Ethics outlines 17 guidelines realtors must follow and generally holds them to a higher standard of conduct than unaffiliated agents. Keep in mind that both realtors and real estate agents are bound by the same legal standards. The Code of Ethics is designed to impose additional moral rules, rather than legal ones.

Bottom Line

When you’re shopping around for a real estate professional, there are some questions you can ask to help narrow down your choices. First, you should ask whether or not the agent or broker has their license. Avoid anyone can’t demonstrate a valid license. Next, you should find out how long they’ve been working in real estate, particularly in the market you’re looking to buy or sell in. It’s okay to ask them about their individual track record or request examples of homes they’ve recently closed on.

You should also ask any prospective agent or broker whether they belong to the Local Board of Realtors. Board membership isn’t required but it does give members access to the Multiple Listing Service, which is a nationwide database of homes that are for sale.

Whether you need to use a real estate agent, broker or realtor depends on your personal preference. All three must be licensed and all three perform similar functions, although individual agents, brokers and realtors will vary in terms of their education and experience. Ultimately, finding the right fit means choosing someone you feel comfortable with and whose qualifications match your needs.

Home Buying Tips

- A financial advisor can help you create a financial plan to reach your homebuying goals.
- Saving is important when you’re looking to buy a house. Setting a budget with budget tool can get you on track.

Treat yourself

Make The Dream Reality

Sell My Home

How Much Is My Home Worth!

Everyone has a dream they want to come true in life. Whether it’s having the Ultimate job, living where you’ve always wanted, starting a family or a combination of all these, our aspirations motivate us to pursue these passions and interests. But reaching your dreams starts by setting goals for yourself and having the tenacity and initiative to achieve them. What is your’s?

You won’t want to sell property for anything less than fair market value. On the other hand, by setting a listing price higher than what is realistic might be a mistake that results in a home that doesn’t sell.

Before putting your home on the market it is important to first have an estimate of the value. This can be accomplished by having an experienced real estate agent provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). This market analysis will provide the information that will help you sell your home for the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

For your FREE no obligation “What’s My Home Worth” Analysis, just click on the button below……..

Real Estate Closing and Beyond

Closing and Beyond

Closing is the phase in the home selling process when money and documents are transferred in order to transfer ownership of the property to the buyer.

The closing date is the date ownership of the property is officially transferred from the seller to the buyer; it’s an exciting moment. The home closing process is all of the steps that are outlined in the sale contract that must happen from the time you accept the buyer’s offer to the closing date.

Steps to closing on a house?

You’ve finished negotiations and accepted an offer from a buyer. Congratulations! Now, there are a few things to take care of:

Do a title search and obtain title insurance

Your closing agent will order a title search, which is a review of public records to make sure you’re the legal owner of your property. If there are any claims or judgments against the property, the title search should uncover them. These issues must be resolved for the sale to move forward.

Unlike homeowners insurance which helps protect against future events like a fire, title insurance helps protect against past events affecting your home. For example, if you later found out the home you purchased has a lien for unpaid bills, title insurance would typically have you covered.

There are generally two types of title insurance in a home sale: a policy for the new owner and a policy for the lender. The party responsible for paying each policy varies by state and even county. In some cases, buyers and sellers can haggle over who pays each cost.

Complete the home inspection

A home inspection Home Inspection isn’t required, but many buyers insist on it to ensure there are no hidden problems with the property. The inspection will take place shortly after you accept the buyer’s offer.

If your home is in need of any repairs, let your agent know if you haven’t already done so. They may recommend that you make these repairs before the home inspection to avoid any potential issues.

An inspection will typically examine the safety, functionality, and quality of the home’s features. Here are some of the most common items our home assessment team looks for.

Depending on the contingencies outlined in the sale contract, the buyer can ask you to remedy any major repairs before closing or ask for a price reduction to cover the costs of making the repairs. You can choose to skip the work and have the buyer handle any repairs after you move out. You can credit the buyer to cover the costs, which are often lower than engaging repair vendors yourself.

Don’t forget lender appraisal

If the buyer is borrowing money for the purchase, the mortgage lender will arrange for a professional appraisal. This is done so the lender can be confident that the amount of money it’s lending to the buyer is in line with the market value of the home in case the lender needs to repossess the house. The appraisal is based on the estimated value of the home’s individual features, as well as comparable homes that have sold recently nearby.

If your home appraises below the sale price, lenders are unlikely to approve a loan to the buyer for that amount. If this happens, you will either have to ask the buyer to make up the difference, lower the sale price, or challenge the appraisal.

Final walk-through

The final walk-through typically occurs 24-48 hours before closing. The buyer and their agent will walk through the property one last time to make sure everything is in order.

They will check that all required repairs have been made, that the property is clean and damage-free, and that all of your possessions have been removed unless you’ve arranged for certain items to stay. If the buyer discovers anything problematic, you’ll need to address it or the closing might be delayed.

Finalizing the sale on the closing date

The closing date is when the sale transaction is officially completed. You will sign a lot of paperwork, including signing the deed to the property over to the buyer. Don’t be afraid to ask your attorney or escrow agent about any documents you don’t understand. You have the right to know what you’re signing.

The closing will take place at the office of your escrow agent, title agent, or attorney. Depending on your state, you might not be required to attend the closing. Ask your real estate agent or attorney if your attendance is mandatory, or if you may sign the paperwork ahead of time. If so, your agent or attorney will provide it at the closing.

Once all paperwork has been signed and funds have been disbursed, the buyer is officially the new owner of the property.

What should you bring on the closing date?

You don’t need to bring much to the closing: usually just a government-issued photo ID, the keys to the property, and any outstanding documents and paperwork your attorney or escrow agent instructs you to bring. These may include documents showing you’ve completed all repairs requested by the buyer.

How long does the closing process take?

The full closing process, from the initial offer acceptance to the closing date, takes an average of 50 days, according to Realtor.com.

In a traditional sale, the buyer’s lender will be originating and underwriting the loan. This is a time-consuming process the lender undertakes to determine if the buyer qualifies for the loan. The underwriting process is one of the major things that can delay a closing.

The National Association of Realtors reports that nearly one-third of all closings are delayed, so be prepared for that possibility. Common issues that delay closing beyond buyer financing issues include title issues, home inspection issues, and home appraisal issues.

What are the seller’s responsibilities during closing?

Both parties have obligations to fulfill under the sales contract. During the closing process, you’ll typically be required to:

Remove all your possessions from the property, unless they’re specified to stay under the contract. Major appliances, for instance, are sometimes negotiated into a deal.
Make any repairs you have agreed to make.
Clean the home right before the closing date. A good rule of thumb is to leave it as clean as you’d like to find it if you were the buyer. (Typically required unless the home is sold in as-is condition.)

These items aren’t typically required but they’re either a good idea to consider or a nice gesture for the new owner:

Notify subscription services, creditors and acquaintances of your new address and set up mail forwarding.
Collect any manuals and warranties you have for items in the home, such as the HVAC system and any appliances you’re leaving behind. Leave them on the kitchen counter for the buyer, along with any spare keys and garage door openers.
Shut off water valves to prevent any leaks between the time the buyer takes possession and the time they actually move in.

Some states and municipalities have additional requirements, so check with your real estate agent or attorney. For example, your state may require a septic system inspection, or a smoke and carbon monoxide detector certificate.

What are the buyer’s responsibilities during closing?

During the closing process, buyers are typically required to:

Make an “earnest money” deposit into an escrow account, where funds allocated for closing costs will be held by a third party until the closing date.
Provide any documentation and information requested by the lender in the loan underwriting process.
Obtain homeowners insurance. Many mortgage lenders require evidence of coverage to approve the loan.
Arrange for utilities to be transferred into their name effective on the closing date.
Perform a final walk-through.

Takeaways

The closing process is everything that happens from when you accept an offer until the close date, the date when ownership of the home is officially transferred to the buyer.
Closing costs can add up to a significant percentage of the sale. Fortunately, many of the costs that you’ll incur as a home seller are deducted from your proceeds from the sale. As long as you have sufficient equity in the home, you likely won’t need to come up with cash out-of-pocket.
There can be a lot of steps to the closing process, which may take an average of 50 days.

Certified Probate & Trust Specialist

As a Certified Probate & Trust Specialist you can rest assured that as a Real estate professional, I have the understanding of the Probate transaction and can represent sellers or buyers in probate transactions, as well as investors looking to purchase probate properties.

Negotiating The Deal

Negotiating Home Sale Price as a Seller

Negotiations are a two-way street when it comes to real estate transactions. In addition to prospective buyers working to get the best deal for their budget and overall goals, home sellers also have a lot of negotiating power. With the help of an experienced real estate agent, sellers can employ a variety of techniques to escalate the final purchase price for their home and secure the most favorable terms. Strategies to consider include, but are not limited to:

Bidding wars

“Highest and best offer” bids

Expiration dates on counter-offers

Rejecting offers outright

Create a Bidding War

The ultimate goal for nearly every home seller is a bidding war between buyers. This scenario drives up your home’s price — often well beyond what it was initially listed for. In today’s market, that goal is not very difficult to achieve, especially if your home is in good condition and listed at a fair market price, says Rudy Rodriguez, a Real Estate Broker Associate with California Life Properties.

“With today’s limited housing inventory, there has been a frenzy among buyers to outbid each other and drive up prices hundreds of thousands of dollars above list price,” says Rudy Rodriguez.

The competition of bidding wars can also inspire prospective buyers to offer more favorable sale terms, such as waiving home inspections and contingencies and offering longer or more flexible closing timelines.

As a seller, you can help trigger bidding wars by pricing your home slightly below market value. This will ideally attract more viewers to your property and result in more offers. Yet another approach is to create a deadline for all offers on your home, which may inspire buyers who have been on the fence to submit their offer.

Invite bidders to make their highest and best offer

Another tactic sellers may choose to employ during negotiations, particularly when there are multiple bidders, is asking prospective buyers to make their “highest and best” offer. This is also sometimes referred to as a “best and final” offer.

As a seller, employing this tactic means you’re not going to negotiate with every potential buyer who makes an offer. Instead, you want them to submit the highest price they’re willing to pay for your home, along with the best sale terms. This approach also typically includes a deadline by which prospective buyers must provide their highest and best offer. Making this request indicates to buyers that you’ve received multiple offers, and it generally results in more competitive bids.

In especially competitive markets, sellers can conceivably pursue multiple rounds of highest and best offer submissions. “This can be done more than once, so that you could continue asking for buyers to increase their offer at each round,” says Rudy Rodriguez.

Include an expiration date on counter offers

When making a counter offer as a seller, you can also include an expiration date by which the prospective buyer must respond. In a competitive situation, this can be helpful in moving negotiations along more quickly. It allows you to either get your home under contract or move on to other offers, with less waiting time.

Reject an offer outright

Though it may sound counterintuitive, as a seller you can also completely reject an offer that does not meet your needs without making any counter offer at all. While this doesn’t seem like much of a negotiation technique, the approach can actually be useful — it may entice the prospective buyer to completely revise the offer they initially submitted and develop an entirely new proposal. In the best case scenario, the new offer will be one that you feel is more competitive financially, or more in line with your goals.

How to know when to accept an offer

While bidding wars and record-breaking sale prices may seem like a dream come true to a seller, knowing when to bring negotiations to a close and finally accept an offer is crucial. Dragging negotiations out too long can cause a potential buyer to lose interest and move on.

Pursuing the highest price at all costs can backfire in other ways as well. “The danger in driving up the price sky high is that, once a seller has accepted an offer, the buyer has the power to cancel their offer and get back their deposit before contingencies are released. This can happen when a buyer feels they’ve offered more money than the property is worth,” says Rudy Rodriguez.

When trying to determine whether or not an offer is the right one to accept, be sure to review all of the terms carefully. “All offers are not good offers,” explains California–based Real Estate Broker Associate, Rudy Rodriguez -California Life Properties. “When they’re full of contingencies, such as ‘If I sell my house,’ ‘If I move’ or ‘If I obtain this new job’ — those may be red flags. Standard contingencies such as inspections are commonplace, but when the list gets to be way too long, it’s typically not in the best interest of the seller.”

In the end, the best course is to consult with your agent. An experienced listing agent knows when it’s time to stop negotiating, when you’ve reached the full potential of the sale and when you’ve secured an offer that’s worthy of accepting. After all, your goal is to finalize the deal, not to drag it out forever in the constant hope of something better.

Bottom Line

Negotiating the price of a home sale is just as important for sellers as it is for buyers. Working with an experienced real estate agent or broker, there are a variety of techniques that can help you obtain the best price possible for your home, as well as the most favorable sale terms. But be sure you know when it’s time to bring the negotiations to a close, or you risk losing the interest of prospective buyers.