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Whatis the Best Way to Find
My Dream Home?
For most people, the first thing they do when they decide to buy a home is to pick up the newspaper or a Homes book from a stand and begin to leaf through. Soon they find some homes that appeal to them.Sound familiar? The next step is to call the agents who have the houses listed and begin to try to sort through the jargon, the sales pitches and the un-returned phone calls. It can be a frustrating experience trying to find your home. You soon discover that many of the homes advertised have sold, are in the wrong area, the price is too high, the rooms too small, etc.
When our children and their friends began to buy homes a few years ago, we had one piece of advice for them: Choose an agent to work for you; tell him or her what you want and don't want; and put him or her to work. /Most people don't realize that a full-time agent can sell you any home in the city, no matter what company has it listed, even if it is For Sale by Owner. Productive agents are members of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) which provides all agents' listings to all the other agents in the area. Productive agents know about houses that are not on the market but whose owners want to sell (we call these pocket listings). They know which builders may have houses in the process of being completed, and they have access to foreclosed properties.
Possibly more important than the amount of information that these agents have, is their ability to sort through that information and make recommendations. At any given time, there are 3,000 to 5,000 homes on the market in the Greater Columbia area. There are generally several hundred homes on the market in a given price range. An agent who is trained as a HomeBuyer Specialist can take your wishes and translate those into a list of properties for your consideration ... all in the school district you want, all with the layout you want, in the price range you prefer. No cost, no sales pitch, no pressure, no hassle.
So when someone asks me how best to find their dream house, I say simply, "Call your agent!"
