How to Choose a Real Estate Agent

If you’re buying or selling a home with the help of a real estate agent, it will pay to do your homework. The qualifications among agents vary greatly, so you want one that will best serve your interests. A common anecdote regarding agent performance is the reference to the 80/20 rule - 80 percent of the homes are sold by 20 percent of the agents. While these numbers may not be statistically accurate, the point is still valid: there’s a few highly-qualified, talented agents and many run-of-the-mill agents that you won’t necessarily get what you pay for.

So how do you tell the difference? How do you know do you find a good agent? Here’s some things to look for in a good agent:

• Works full time. There’s a sizeable number of people that think they can make some extra bucks on the side as a real estate agent. They soon realize that it’s not as easy as getting the license. A full time agent not only has more time to devote to your real estate needs, but chances are a full time agent is qualified enough that they are able to earn a full time living at what they do. There may be exceptions, but this is a signal to look for.
• Has experience. Similar to above, an agent that has a couple years under their belt has sold/bought some houses and learned a few things along they way that they can employ when helping you buy or sell a home.
• Has specialized knowledge. This knowledge be in the form of additial designations that the agent has earned or training that they’ve taken, or it may be in depth knowledge of an area or specific housing areas. Local knowledge, for example, can be an asset to you when you’re pricing your house for sale or looking to make an offer when buying a house.
• Performance. What better measure of an agent’s worth than their actual performance? If you need a listing agent, ask the agent for an MLS printout of the listing they’ve sold in the last year and the average time on the market their listings had compared to the average. An agent that’s sold a handful of homes or had average or more time on the market for their listings may not be the best agent for you.

In addition to the above, follow these tips to help you find a good agent:

• Ask around for references. Your family and friends may know someone who has done great work for them in the past.
• Interview multiple agents. Don’t pick the first one you come across. Remember the 80/20 rule - there’s a lot more average/poor agents than there are good ones. Do your homework and check out their experience and background.
• Don’t sign a lengthy contract. A listing agent that wants to lock you into a lengthy listing contract is a bad signal.

These tips will help you find a good agent that will best serve your interests.

Top 6 Factors to Consider and benefits of Investing in Pre-Construction Condos

If you are looking for an investment opportunity in the real estate market these days, you might want to attempt buying up or investing in pre-construction condominium. The thing with this kind of investment is that it is long term and your money could literally become tied down for a numerable number of years. So, if you re looking to make some quick cash, then this field of real estate is not for you. But if you have got the patience and risk endurance, the pre-construction condos are worth the risk and investment. Now what are he important factors that need consideration before you decide to buy up pre-construction condos?

• The builder’s reputation and past records of transactions.  You would have to find out this information by yourself. If you are willing to do this and do not know how to go about it, simply do a quick search on the web using “how to determine/know/find a builder’s reputation”. The reputation of the builder you are likely to be dealing with is really important as you do not want to deal with a shady character that people cannot trust.
• You have to consider the neighborhood in which you are buying the condo. The question you should ask is “How will the area look like in about 3 yrs after building?”

These are just two of the question you will need to ask when considering investments in pre-construction condos. Now to the benefits:

• You do not have to make a full payment before acquisition. On the contrary, you just pay a minimal amount –usually between 5-15%- as down payment while the value of the building continues to grow.
• You can plan towards the period of financing by saving up.
• The most obvious being that you acquire a completely new house.
• You can easily effect and make any changes you want to make your condo look different from others.

What are the Benefits of Property Mangement?

Maintaining and taking care of our properties can become a daunting task. For greenhorns, it can be even intimidating particularly when it is the first time one is embarking on such a projects. But for those who have been through it before, it is a very easy thing to do. But first, what is property management? It is simply the art of taking care of both your property and the people it is leased or rented out to. Before, dabbling into property management, it is best to know that it entails time. For those who cannot afford the time, you can easily hand the maintenance of your property over to people who are versed in property management.

Property management entails just a few things:

• The ability to be able to manage and organize things.
• You will need time.
• The ability to be able to attend to renters’ problems, issues and difficulties.

The bottom line really is that you get to handle by yourself, the seemingly trivial and big issues that may assail your renters. This can vary from changing the faucet to the time your renters should be indoors. You would have to find the time to fix things that need fixing. But all these seem like a whole lot of work. Why not just hand the property management over to experts?

The truth is there are benefits to property management by yourself.

• You get to save money if you are on a tight budget.
• You get to interact with your renters and see what their personal problems may be.
• There is nothing like taking care of your own property as property managers can have a lot of clientele and may not be able to give the property the singular attention it might require. For instance, it can take a longer period of time to get just the bathroom floor unclogged if the property were not managed by you, the owner.