Home Buyers: You Don’t Want to be an Agent’s “Aha moment.”



October 15, 2010I read a blog by Lenn Harley describing experienced buyer's agent’s strategy to address home repairs. An experienced agent knows when a repair should be included in the Contract of Sale, or when it should be addressed after the Contract has been accepted during the Inspection Resolution period. This is just another important reason to work with an experienced agent, and equally important, that...

Home Shopping without an buyer’s agent is like Reading your Own X-Ray



September 27, 2010We just recently had a house guest who is a very dear friend of the family, who is in his fourth year of medical school.  We were talking about the term “gestalt.” According to Wikipedia is the concept that “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”  It is the idea that a few lines and curves can be recognized as a figure.   For example, a few lines and a circle could be...

Why work with an buyer’s agent?



September 20, 2010I had such a great experience working with our exclusive buyers' agent that I take for granted that anyone buying a home would make the same decision and work with an agent. But I forget that there was a time that I considered, even temporarily, that I might want to just “save money” by buying a house without an agent.   It makes me smile and laugh at myself to think about that.  After...

“The best buyer’s market since the mid 90’s.”



September 8, 2010According to one of our exclusive buyer’s agents specializing in Summit County home sales; this is the best buyer’s market since the mid 90’s.   It makes me want to buy a house all over again, and we haven't even unpacked yet. End of real estate season pressures sellers to drop prices. Heading into the end of the “Real Estate Season” agents are seeing sellers more eager than ever to...

Local Knowledge May Help You Find Your Dream Home



August 27, 2010Yesterday I was going for a stroll, when I met another one of my neighbors.  We had the typical new neighbor conversation; covering names, family members, abridged employment history and date moved to the neighborhood.   She has been here about 25 years.  I’ve been here about 2 months.  I told her that I was previously renting in the Denver University area, about a mile away from Wash...

The Home Search: Experience vs. Online Tools



July 18, 2010I was just sitting down to write about why online home searches can give an incomplete picture.  Since I haven’t been home searching in a while, I went back to my old friend Zillow to look at the home we almost purchased.  One feature I really loved on Zillow is that it gives the transaction history from public record, so you can see how much the current owners bought it for, etc.  This...

How Our Buyer’s Agent Saved us Money.



July 5, 2010Does working with an experienced buyer’s agent pay off? For us it did.  Our agent’s experience and knowledge steered us away from buying a home that was not at a good value. We also saw the negative impact that the seller’s agent may have had on the seller. Timely responses are critical. We had made an offer on a home that was listed for $220,000 of $205,000.  The seller’s agent did...