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Originally Posted by vraiblonde  Practically every point in that article is an exercise in ignorance.
Selling your home: Go ahead and pay for your own advertising, website, print your own flyers and stick signs in your yard. See how much you spend vs. how many people come see your house. You can also enjoy having strangers traipse through your home just because they "wanted to see it", yet have no intention of buying.
RE agents spend a fortune on advertising, and your prospects come pre-qualified and ready to buy.
Buying a home: Go ahead and spend countless hours tracking down suitable homes and scheduling a time to see them. Have fun lining up the home inspection, then fighting with the owner about repairs. Oh, and you can also enjoy the negotiating process, where price reductions and who pays points can become rather heated. And you better bring a friend around when looking because one pair of eyes can't see everything.
Buyers agents negotiate on your behalf to get you the best deal. If you as an inexperienced layman want to go toe-to-toe with a listing agent or even the homeowner themselves, have at it. You can also spend your life sitting in front of the computer running down every detail of the transaction process and the legalities involved.
Obviously I am not a real estate agent, but I am very familiar with what they do for a living. When I bought my house, all I did was look at houses from the list provided by my agent, and put my financing together. She did everything else, INCLUDING walking me through the closing process and fighting it out with the listing agent. |
We got a great agent down here in TX, all by word of mouth reccomendations. She hauled us all over 2 counties for over a week, dealing with hubby, me and 2 kids in diapers. She found me my dream house and hobby farm all in one. I don't begrudge her the fee, she was an angel and full of info. She knew up and coming areas, good vs. bad school districts, and all kinds of stuff about agricultural set asides/tax bases in TX that will save us good money. She was a 25 year vet in realty and was really good to us. We had her undivided attention for over 5 work days, she set up everything and dealt with every hurtle in our path. She was worth it.