Sometimes I’m asked, what should I be looking for in a buyer agent? Well, there are a number of things. Some of the things are particular to you. The personality of the agent, the area in which you’re searching, and the expertise associated with the search that you in particularly need. But then there are also some things that generally every buyer should be looking for in a buyer agent. One is integrity. Trustworthiness. You want to know because you are sort of giving this person the privilege of guiding you through a very important process, likely the largest purchase that you’re ever going to make, and that person needs to be the kind of person who can be relied upon and trusted to give good, honest information and timely guidance.

Timeliness. You want a person who is going to dedicate a lot of time and energy to you. You sign a buyer agency agreement with the buyer and you want to know that they are elevating you, that you are a very high priority, and that your search is a work related item, and that your search is going to get a lot of bandwidth from that person. Now, we all know that we’re all looking for property online these days, so it’s not only about finding the properties, but it’s helping you evaluate them. This is a very important thing about a buyer agent. You want someone who can be consultative and who can evaluate the opportunity in front of you.

I would like to say that a real estate’s buyer agent is actually not a salesperson. What I mean by that, obviously we call them licensed sales people, but what I mean by that is they’re not trying to sell you a house; rather, they are trying to match you with a house. This is a consultant who is listening very very carefully to your needs, performing a needs analysis, testing the assumptions that you’ve put out there about what your needs are. Helping you discern between what you must have and what would be nice. Because ultimately, the process of buying does involve understanding that distinction, facing certain compromises, making hard decisions, and making sure you get all of what you had to have and hopefully a good bit of what you would like to have but that wasn’t an absolute requirement. So again, this is a person who’s consultative, who isn’t thinking about trying to persuade you to buy a house, but rather, is trying to discern what your requirements are and matching you up against those requirements.

Garcia: Bringing your home to the market to get it ready to sell is not an easy thing to do. It takes a lot of hard work and frankly, a lot of the tasks associated with bringing a house to the market are no fun, especially if you’re still living there. But it is very important to recognize that basically, the value that you bring to the market when you list your home has three essential elements. Location, which you cannot change. You’re not going to move your house, so it is where it is. Size, which also probably won’t change for purposes of bringing into the market, and condition, which you certainly can influence. Now, condition has sort of 2 elements to it. It’s how the condition of the house really isn’t and then also how well it’s presented. The condition that it’s really in, you know, that is represented by the tile, the hardwood, are things cracked? Are things peeling? Are things in good condition? Has it been painted recently? Is it fresh? These are things that need to be considered when you bring your home to the market. Of course, you’ll want to be really careful. You’re actually moving out of this house, you’re moving away from this house, so you don’t want to invest a ton of money in it. On the other hand…

Man: Start back. Just go back a little bit from where you were.

Garcia: As you bring your home to the market, your thinking is “I’m moving out of this house, I’m moving away from this house. This house is not in my future.” So you want to be careful about how much money you are going to invest in the house. That’s why it’s really important to sit down with your realtor, perhaps an interior designer, if necessary, to think about cost effective ways to make your house more attractive and to make sure that you mainstream your house. You want to make your house broadly appealing. Appealing to as many people as possible. Appealing to the average buyer in your subdivision or building.

Now, in terms of presenting the home, you want to present it in its best possible light. You want to de-clutter, effectively making it look as large as possible. If the sofa in the living room is too large, the living room looks too small. Consider swapping it out for a sofa that is much too small for your liking, but makes the living room look bigger. This is a critical way to ensure that the buyer sees all the space for which he or she could flow in that living room. Ultimately, what you want is as many viewings as possible. So you want your realtor to present your home really effectively. Online, in brochures, everywhere. Online is really important. 90 percent of consumers or more these days depending on your locality, are shopping online. So you want a terrific photo tour. You want that thing to pop. You only have a few seconds in front of that time conscious consumer who online is going to make a decision whether or not to view your house this weekend. You need to give them reasons to come on out with a well presented property

Garcia: You know, some of my clients ask me from time to time, “How do you analyze the market?” Well, there is no real quick answer. There are a number of ways to look at the market. Two things I often look at are volume and value. Volume is the number of transactions that are closing. Value is the average or median price in the area in question. Volume leads to value. What I mean by that is as volume picks up, more and more transactions occur and are closed. Market activity increases. Then, there is a bit of a lag, word gets out, people understand that this is actually happening. “Wow, the market’s picking up,” they say to each other. And sure enough, value then follows. Value starts to pick up. Likewise, in a down market, the volume decreases. The market sort of slows down. Word gets out, market participants sort of “get it” that the market is slower, and then the values starts to show a decline. We’ve seen that in the real estate market here locally.

This is on some level also of course about supply and demand. In a buyer’s market, supply is up, and the problem for sellers is demand is down. There are fewer buyers out there. And if both of those things occur at the same time, that supply increases and demand decreases, well, that’s only going to lead to more and more supply in the market, which can sort of be a negative, self fulfilling cycle, further decreasing demand. On the other hand, in a seller’s market, supply is down. The number of homes out there is dwindling and demand is up. There is a fervor building up among buyers to get whatever they can get their hands on and there is just not enough inventory out there. Another way to look at the market is to think about the value and long term trends.

When you’re making a purchase or considering selling a property, when you’re trying to figure out what it’s worth, what you should ask for that property. The old adage: location, location, location is spot on. It is very important, and often, the thing that you’re sort of overlooking, don’t forget what’s right under your nose, is the location question. Do I have a great location? What drives location? Well, one example would be finite space. In a city or city center, they can build more condos, but can they build more single family houses? Perhaps in a rural area. Is there a moratorium on building? For example, by the water. Is there a moratorium on building by the water? That makes the location more and more dear. Of course there is always in this day and age with rising fuel costs, and an interest in the environment, access to public transportation another critical one. And of course, finally there is that traditional concern of every suburban household for sure and many in the city more and more these days which is access to excellent public education.

Carlos Garcia: Occasionally, my buyer clients would ask me “Carlos, do we really have to go out there and get a pre-approval letter? Can’t we just put an offer in on the property without a pre-approval letter?” Let me talk a little bit about pre-approvals, ultimate final approvals or loan commitment letters, and the seller’s perspective in connection with your financing as a buyer.

The sellers put everything out in the open. Here she’s saying “Here’s my house, I put it on the Internet, there’s a big sign up in front, there’s a lot of transparency. You can inspect my house.” The buyer, on the other hand, is not that visible to the seller. From the seller’s perspective, here she’s thinking “Who’s this person that wants to be under contract with me to tie up my house and take it off the market? And how can I know that it’s worth taking a chance on this person, on these people?” Well, you can begin to assure them with a pre-approval letter, and this is why all my clients submit a contract only with a pre-approval letter in hand so that immediately, from the start, they can demonstrate to the seller that they are worthy of going forward at the price point in question. In order to obtain a pre-approval letter, what you’re doing is…

You’re asking Don not to cough. So I’m trying to figure out where I should pick up.

In order to obtain a pre-approval letter, essentially you need to spend some time on the phone or online with your lender, loan officer, allow that person to run your credit, it’s probably a 10 minute conversation. Provide that person with data, information about you that’s accurate. Now, the lender is going to take that information at face value. If you say that you earn X dollars a year, they’re going to trust that that’s so for the purpose of generating the pre-approval letter typically. A final approval, which generates a loan commitment from the lender is a little bit different. There, all the information that you have provided has actually been provided, documented by you and verified by the lender and it’s going through underwriting. So that’s a different scenario between a pre-approval letter and a final approval or loan commitment. And again, think about the seller’s perspective. The seller doesn’t really have a lot of visibility into you. They’ve got your name, they’ve probably never seen you, the name’s there written on the contract, they wanna know “Is this a person who I can get under contract with? Is this a risk worth taking?” And you, as a buyer, want to assure them that of course it is.

Garcia: My seller clients often ask me, “What is it that you’re going to do for me?” Well, there’s a number of things that a realtor should do for his or her listing client / seller client. But you know, right at the top of the list is a fierce, fierce and focused marketing campaign. The Internet. You got to be on the Internet. You know…

It’s being held too high. I’m starting at the top.

The Internet. Let’s talk about the Internet. There’s a whole new phenomenon that’s under the surface that people don’t even know about. I’m talking about Craigslist. A recent study showed that 41% of open house traffic in Metro areas is from Craigslist. Get this. The National Association of Realtors said 89% of consumers start their information gathering on the web.

56% of the consumers actually drive by the property in question before calling the real estate agent. Texting information. You got to think about how people these days like to receive their information. Imagine if there was a way that a consumer could simply text a number for information about a property that they are interested in. These are the kinds of approaches realtors need to use if they’re going to reach today’s consumer. Photos. This is not the newest technology in the world, but there is not enough photos online. Typically, to really demonstrate what the house is all about. Photos are more important these days because the time conscious online consumer is trying to decide whether it’s worth it to go out and see the house this weekend with his realtor. You need to make that decision much much easier for the consumer by presenting your listing in the best possible light with copious and beautiful photos that make the place look bright, open, spacious, and inviting. Virtual tours? Same thing for virtual tours. Finally, I want to tell you that you need to build a website that’s specific to your property. Doing this results in much more buzz, much more interest, activity, and importantly, shows. All our marketing efforts are about showings. To use a baseball analogy, you’re never going to get on base if you don’t get a lot of good bats. If you get a lot of bats, you’ll get a couple of hits, you might even hit a home run.

Garcia: If you think that your home may need to be staged, that this is a question that you need to confront. Make sure that you hire a real…

Man: Stop. Start over, talk about what staging is, define it, and then roll.

Garcia: Okay. My seller clients and friends often ask “Should I stage my home?” Well, what is staging? Staging is nothing more than ensuring that with a combination of your furniture and furniture that is brought in from the outside, the house is presented in a manner that makes it look really as large as possible, spacious as possible, and as broadly appealing as possible.

When you hire a realtor to sell your home, if you think it might need to be staged, make sure you are dealing with somebody that really has a sense of aesthetics. Your realtor does not by definition have to, but if you’re considering staging, your realtor really does need to understand aesthetics. Design, space flow, how to make the house look really appealing. Staging can include light staging, which is just creating vignettes in your home to suggest what the living room or dining room might be like, or how one might live in it, to full blow staging, all out staging, that encompasses everything and gives people the impression that the home is actually lived in.

Down to fake fruit on the kitchen countertop and beautiful napkins and cutlery on the set dining room table. All out staging takes a lot more money so often light staging is more cost effective. But really, you are going to need to look at your market and what other people are doing in your market and how nicely the other homes, whether they are vacant or occupied are presenting to make a sort budget conscious decision about whether you still have to stage your home.

Often my buyers ask me, “What is the importance of the home inspection?” Well, a home inspection is very very important. There are basically two or three things going on. One is you may have an inspection contingency in your contract, so you may have the right to terminate your contract if the house’s condition is just too much for you to deal with. Or more likely, you’ll want to negotiate and ask the seller to fix certain items. You need to hire a really good home inspection company.

We like to work with home inspectors who are really experienced, many of whom previously built homes, and understand homes to their very core. This may sound a little bit corny or simpleminded, but actually one of the things I look for in an inspection company is an amazing form document that they use to go through their inspection. Inspection work is sometimes grueling and detail based. It can take 3 to 4 hours to inspect the house.

I want my inspector to be using a form and a format that is so detailed and specific, that even if he is having a bad day, he’s not going to forget to inspect a particular element of the house. So again, as dry and simple as that seems, a really great inspection form is one of the things I look for in an inspector to know that he or she is going to be as thorough and consistent as I need. Now, another thing that’s important about your inspection other than ascertaining the condition of the property is that you probably want to be there that day that the house was inspected so you can sort of just follow the inspector around. Chances are, the seller is not going to give you a detailed explanation of how to operate the house.

Actually, it’s the inspector who you can rely on for that. So while he or she is inspecting the home, you can sort of be trailing around the house and learning about the history of the house, whatever can be discerned by the inspector about how the house operates. About how you are going to need to operate and maintain it in the future once you become the owner of that house.