When Buying a House Do I Really Need to Hire a REALTOR

In our last blog, we discussed the benefits of hiring a REALTOR when selling a home.  What about buying?  What if you found the home you want?  Why would you want to use a REALTOR?  What are the benefits?  What are the detriments?  Do you really have to hire a REALTOR?

The simplest answer is "no."  You do not absolutely have to hire a REALTOR when buying a home.  You can find a lender on your own and get pre-approved for a home loan.  You can put in the research time and search the thousands of homes available on sites such as REALTOR.com, Trulia, Zillow, Homes.com, etc and find your perfect home, or at least narrow it down to a few homes you would like to see.  You can call the listing agent and schedule an appointment to see the home.  Or, if looking a new construction, call the site agent and set an appointment to see the model.  You can determine the market value on your own and determine what you would like to offer.  You can draw up the offer and handle the negotiations back and forth between yourself and the seller.  You can review the lengthy contract yourself and sign off on its stipulations.  Once you have an accepted contract, you can coordinate the inspections with a qualified, licensed inspector and review the results.  You can also negotiate the repair issues (if there are any).  You can handle the paperwork and follow up with the lender and title company.  Then, you can handle all the details involved in moving like arranging movers, packing, setting up utility services, etc.  Once that big day finally comes, you can go to the closing table, by yourself, and review the lengthy closing statement, deal with any errors, and finally buy your home.

Legally, "yes," you can do all of the above mentioned tasks by yourself without a REALTOR.  The real question is, why would you want to?  You also have a job, family, friends-a life to live.  Why take your valuable spare time and spend it doing all the tasks mentioned above.  With enough time, the proper tools, and the proper manuals, when my lawn mower broke, I'm sure I could have eventually figured out how to fix it but lets face it-time is money.  I instead took it to a repair man who fixed it and I was back up and running in a day.  Also don't forget, when buying a home hiring a REALTOR costs you, the buyer, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  Yes, I said absolutely nothing.  The commission is paid by the seller to the listing agent, or rather the listing agent's company.  The listing agents company will then share the commission with the buyer agent, or rather the buyer agent's company.

It just makes sense to hire a REALTOR when buying a house.  They know the market, they know how to negotiate a contract, and it is their job to do the follow up.  Since it costs you nothing, why not leave it to the experts?  TEAM JOHNSON would love to help you find your home, whether it be your first home or your last home, give us a call.  904-495-0146