Do I Have to Hire a Realtor?

Should you hire a REALTOR ®? I say yes, but of course I’m biased but let me try to convince you. What would be the difference between hiring a REALTOR ® and taking on the process by yourself? I’m not going to lie and tell you that it would be impossible to buy a house by yourself. The internet exists, of course, you can but here’s the question. How much risk are you willing to take on?

Here’s the scenario, let’s forget about having a real-estate agent or a REALTOR ® just for a second. What do you need to do to buy a house? You need to check (maybe fix) your credit, you need to get a lender to tell you what your options are financially, that lender gives you a pre-approval letter (you need this or nobody selling or building will give you the time of day). That’s all before you can start looking for a home. Then you embark on the most difficult and most important part of the process, finding a home that suits you and your needs.

As a buyer, the person spending money, you are already in the most vulnerable position in this transaction, especially if you're doing this on your own. Without a real-estate agent or a REALTOR ®, even with a pre-approval letter, your options are immediately limited. Most sellers, especially if they have an agent won’t allow someone without one to go through their house. So you’re already down to people selling their homes by themselves and builders. Say you’ve somehow found a suitable house or are in the process of building one, now you need an inspector. So unless you’re alright with casually throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars into getting completely screwed into a home with more problems than you can afford to fix have an inspection. You 1000% can take all that on by yourself, but why would you want to?

A REALTOR ® is an advocate. An advocate armed with experience, the tools, and the infrastructure already in place to get you through the process. REALTORS ® have at their disposal, all the things that just aren’t open to you without a license. An advocate, your REALTOR ®, can guide you through the process, give advice, find you suitable homes to tour, and connections to trustworthy people in the home buyers and sellers’ market that you would otherwise be missing out on.

What do you lose by hiring a REALTOR ®? Nothing, not even money. A real REALTOR ® gets paid at the time of closing by proceeds from the sale of the property. Meaning the seller pays the REALTORS® commissions percent which was already negotiated.  Since in most scenarios the commission is paid for by the seller, why not hire a REALTOR ®? By not hiring a REALTOR ® you're technically wasting a totally free resource? Why not let someone who knows the ins and outs of the process make a grueling process as painless as possible.

Delana Cotton is a REALTOR ® and servers the northeast Atlanta region that includes Dacula, Winder, Lawrenceville, Buford, Snellville, Conyers and surrounding areas. Delana treats every transaction as if she were you, the buyer or seller. If you have a real estate transaction on the horizon, meet Delana for a no pressure chat over coffee. For more information visit GreaterAtlantaAreaHomesForSale.Com