Thursday, October 4, 2007

Real Estate Agents Can Make Home Buying Easier

Buying a home is an exciting experience for all the family members. There are plenty of options for finding the right house. However, if you plan to use a real estate agent to help you, you should be aware of certain things. No matter how professional the agents are, they tend to omit important information from the conversations. There are a few vital things that might help you in making prudent decisions.

The first thing you should remember while dealing with an estate agent is that they are primarily an over hyped salesman and their main aim is selling the house. They will leave no stones unturned to make you believe the good things about the bad ones. Though it is a fact that all of them are not liars, but it is always better to remember their roles. After all you are the buyer and they are the sellers and be sure to remember that you have an upper hand over them. Even though you may think that you need an agent, they are after all negotiators and care only about selling. They are only interested for their commission.

If the property you are planning to buy has certain problems related to it, the agent may not even tell you about those. For example, if a house has termites, ants or similar problems of pest infestation, most probably the agent won't mention about them to you. They may not also mention about other issues related to water damage, electrical problems or plumbing.

The agents will not inform you about the properties for which they won't get any commission, even if you pay them for the services they render to you. These properties may exactly match your laid down criteria of price, location etc. The real estate agent may not show such homes that could be just right for you because they won't be able to make any profit from the deal. This is one of the main reasons for you to check the property listings yourself, even though you have set your agent for the same task. This will help you to understand whether your agent is genuinely working up to his capacity to make your work of finding the right house easier for you.

Everybody prefers to use the service of a real estate agent. In fact some agents are really good and are ready for helping you. But most of them are after money and you should be very careful of them. You should not be running after them. You need to be certain that your agent returns your emails or phone calls. Buying home is a big decision unlike getting a cheap flights to Alicante so make sure you are aware of all the pros and cons before making the final nod.

Being passionate about Costa Dorada and Guardamar, Clinton Maxwell is writing quite a few articles in the field. With his reports such as http://www.alicante-spain.com, the writer showed his skill on issues associated to cheap flights to Alicante Spain.

Real Estate - Time to Buy?

Unless you have been marooned on a desert island for the last 12 months you probably know that the Real Estate market is not so hot these days. Naturally the response of many is to stay out of it. People choose to rent instead of buying. Makes sense right? Well maybe not. Any serious financial advisor will tell you that you buy when prices are low and sell when they are high. This applies to any market, be it the stock market or the housing market. Yet the average person tends to do the opposite. People get caught up in the hype - buying when prices are about to peak and then staying out of the market when the best deals are to be had.

Right now we are in what is called a "buyers market". This means that for the first time in many years buyers are in the driving seat. There are great deals out there and sellers are willing to negotiate like never before. On top of this mortgage rates have again declined to near historic lows. So should you buy now?

Well, not so fast. We recommend that you consult with your financial advisor. Also pay special attention to the market conditions where you are considering buying. Rising rents for example would be a strong signal that prices are about to rebound. Also, review demographic trends - an area experiencing an influx of new residents won't stay depressed for very long. The best advice is as always - buy low and sell high!

This article was submitted by Anthony J. Rigney. Mr. Rigney is the President and owner of First Integrity home loans LLC, a Florida based mortgage broker. For more useful tips please visit our website at the address below.