in praise of realtors
I admit it: I’ve always kind of thought real estate agents had it easy. Show a house, sell a house, make some outrageous commission on the sale price.
And now, I admit this: I was SO wrong! img34
I don’t know about every real estate agent, but I can tell you for a fact that my realtor works her butt off! I cannot say enough about her patience, her understanding, her acceptance of a zillion e-mails with a zillion questions…all sent separately, because I can’t seem to group all my thoughts together at once…her willingness to dig in & find out whatever information I asked about.
And then there was the paperwork. Holy guacamole! I had no idea how much was involved in buying & selling houses. Pages & pages, agreement after agreement, contract after contract, detail after detail, signature after signature… Dealing with other agents, insurance agents, bank officials, multiple inspectors & inspections… She was there through all of it, doing the ground work before & the leg work after.
So here is my revised opinion of realtors:
Mine is worth every penny!
Or her weight in cookies, which is even better.
With an additional shout-out to our loan agent at the bank, who was equally totes amazeballs. img32
We’ve known her for a while, & she’s always been great, but the way she worked with us through this seriously complicated & nerve-wracking home loan process takes friendly & professional to a whole new level. We love her like a fat kid likes cake. (And as a former fat kid—now a chubby adult img23 —I can tell you I reeeeeeeeaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyy like cake. Especially the icing. img40 )
She talked us through every step, did everything she could to get us the best arrangement possible, & murmured, It’s okay…it’s going to be okay as many times as we needed her to—which was a lot. img26
Comments
8 Comments • Comments Feed
Donna A says:
Totally agree. A good realtor can make or break the house buying experience.
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On August 6, 2015 at 9:06 am
Heidi says:
Absolutely! I’d maybe been running into a few too many of the “not great” ones. And it’s like anything else—you can have fabulous used car salesman & weasly ones. I happened to get a GREAT realtor this time around, & the gal at the bank was beyond wonderful the entire time. Both held my hand when I needed it & talked me thru the entire process. img25
On August 6, 2015 at 11:42 am
Dee says:
I am glad you had a good experience. I am having a mixed one. Of the team we are using, Lori rocks. Answers all our questions, is not pushy etc. My main issue was that the rest of the team worked harder on the selling of our house and less on what we were buying. All the leads we had on places to see, I found online. When my brother heard how much the commission would be, he said “seriously? Dee worked much harder and she’s getting zero appreciation?”
On a positive note, all the contracts are signed and I hope to move by the end of next month.
On August 6, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Heidi says:
Boy, can I relate. We’ve been looking at houses for YEARS—I mean literally on & off for probably 20yrs. We’ve always wanted to move, but since this place was paid off, it wasn’t a necessity. Then we’d see a house/listing & call the agent to see it…they’d get all our info, ask what we were looking for, say they’d keep an eye out… And we either never heard from them again or they wanted to show us houses we weren’t at all interested in. One I swear only showed us houses she wanted to sell, not that we would ever have wanted to buy. img36
But Handyman Jr. was fabulous & I really think Fate was just waiting to put us together. Technically, I found the new house online & sent the info to her, but she actually spotted it the same day & thought of us, so we were all on the same track. img16 And once the ball started rolling, I’d have been *a mess* without her. She held my hand, talked things through with me, got answers to all of my questions…& I SO would not have wanted to deal with any of the contracts/paperwork on my own.
Everybody says we should put a For Sale by Owner sign out front for this house, but I really don’t want to deal with it. Not only did we already tell Handyman Jr. she could have our listing, but let her deal with the tours & questions & negotiations *&* making sure interested parties can actually afford it. I’d be terrible at that stuff. img33
SO EXCITED about your move, too! Will you send pics once you’re settled? I’d love to see the new place. It’s exhausting to do this whole moving thing, but exhilarating, too. img19
On August 6, 2015 at 3:06 pm
Dee says:
Yes, I guess it is always a mixed bag. At least the lawyer we used for everything is trustworthy…he’s my cousin.
Sure thing abut the pictures once I am settled. Just need to get to the closings first.
On August 6, 2015 at 11:01 pm
Heidi says:
LOL Well, the pics I’ve shared so far are from the original listing. By the time I manage to take pics of my own, we’re likely to all be old & gray…& my pics don’t usually turn out, anyway. Better to use the ones that are decent already. img38
On August 7, 2015 at 11:58 pm
Mary Kirkland says:
Glad you had a good experience. img32
On August 6, 2015 at 3:23 pm
Heidi says:
Thanks, Mary. It was a good experience…after some not-so-good or just blah ones. But it only takes one good one one time, right? img32
On August 7, 2015 at 11:58 pm