Winning at real estate involves the right mix of skills – and people who understand that.
Forget all the late-night infomercials idealizing the lone-wolf investor. Buying a house is not like buying stuff at a yard sale. It isn’t even nearly comparable to buying a car, but rather much more complex by a factor of ten, at least, on average…no, buying a house is truly the single most expensive purchase most people will ever make in the seventy, eighty, ninety years of their lives. Unlike other big-ticket items, however, buying a house involves so many steps and stages that what you really need is your own team of professionals to come out ahead – or even just break even – on the deal!
Yes, it’s that complicated. In fact, even professional investors – okay, speculators – will resort to building a team themselves, one comprised of members with all the key technical skills necessary. Of course, if you’re simply buying a home as opposed to investing in real estate you may not think any of this applies to you. But you’d be wrong! For general principles exist which do apply across the board, and it is advantageous to field your own dedicated staff of real estate professionals to spare your own eyes all the details, especially when they involve large numbers – and lots of them!
Naturally, you should be aware of what is going on, but professional advice never hurt, and since you’ve hired them anyway, why not let them do all the legwork! That’s right, leave the heavy lifting to your hired guns. Of course you’re smart enough to do it all on your own, but save yourself time and hassle and probably a good deal of money, too, in the proverbial long run: get the pros to represent your best interests, especially if it’s your first time involved in a real estate transaction of this nature.
And just what are the positions on a team in this sport? Generally, only three: the real estate agent, the real estate appraiser, and your lender. Of them all, the agent is the single most important person, and because of that you may want an actual realtor, some who is licensed by the National Association of Realtors and typically has a little more training than any self-described “agent.”
As for the other two spots, the takeaways are simply this: make sure that you are assigned only one representative to work with by your lender, and ensure that appraisers are indeed certified for the job!