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2nd in a Series: Proper and Expected Steps to Buying a Home - Choosing a Realtor in Louisville, Kentucky

This is the second in a series I started yesterday to discuss the proper and expected steps to buying a home. Yesterday I discussed the importance of starting by choosing a lender to make sure you can get pre-qualified and understand how much home you can afford.

Today I want to discuss the importance of choosing a good great Realtor and what it will cost you. You should always have a Realtor represent you in the home buying process and it should not cost you a penny. The buyer’s agent/broker is paid by the listing agent/broker from the pre-negotiated fee he or she already negotiated with the seller. So unless you have an agreement with your agent to pay a certain amount, that fee is generally covered for you through both Realtor’s agreement per the MLS (multiple listing service) rules.

Whether you are in Louisville, KY or anywhere else, the tips for choosing a Realtor are pretty universal. Ask around to some friends or family for a good referral and when you get a few names and start to interview them, you must check a few things first. You will want to find someone who has a really good search site to help you to run your own searches for homes in Louisville, Kentucky. Take a look at my site at www.FindHomesInLouisville.com and you’ll see how easy it is to run your own searches and save your search criteria so you can come back to it easily. You can also set up the system to email you when a new listing comes on that meets your criteria. How cool is that! In certain neighborhoods, like the Highlands, St. Matthews, Indian Hills, or Anchorage, where the homes might sell very quickly, you’ll want the opportunity to know about the homes for sale there before others get a chance to get in and buy it out from under you.

So you’ve got a few names of Realtors from friends, you’ve checked out their websites, now it is time to start interviewing. What questions are you going to ask them? Well, if I had to relocate to Louisville and buy a home in Louisville today, I would want to know several things. I’d like to know what areas of Jefferson County or Oldham County the agent might specialize in, if any. That’s important because the agent should know the market where they will be negotiating a really good price for you. You’ll need to know that they have a good sense of value in that area. Next, do they have a team? If so, how many people are on the team and what roles do they play? A team can really help streamline the process. My team consists of myself, a Buyer’s Agent and a licensed Assistant. I am in the process of hiring another agent to help me with listings. I still work with both Buyers and Sellers, so I am fully involved in every aspect of the business.

Another topic to discuss with a good Realtor to help you with buying a home in Louisville is the agent’s list price to sales price ratio. That will tell you how well the agent is at negotiating the best deal for you. A correctly priced home today sells between 96 to 97% of asking price. My numbers come in at about 93% for my buyers. That means I save my clients thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands of dollars during the negotiation. Make sure the agent knows their numbers too. If they don’t know their numbers, then they must not make that negotiation process a priority like I do.

Lastly, after getting satisfactory answers to those questions above, I would just simply make sure that I felt a good rapport with the agent, and a feeling that they would have my best interest at heart. Is he or she listening to me when I talk about what I want in a home, is he or she taking notes? How will they understand how to help me find what I really want if they don’t listen to me? Will they take the time with me to be sure I am buying the right house, or will they rush me into something just to get this deal behind them? Even during the interview, are they able to address my questions with ease? And do they seem to really care about my concerns? Take the time to get to know your agent a bit and don’t simply choose the first one you meet.

Next in the series: Why You Need A Realtor to Represent You as a Buyer

You can search for homes in the Louisville KY area for free at my search site. If you have any questions about buying real estate in Louisville, KY, or about homes for sale in Oldham County, as well as the surrounding areas, feel free to contact me at 502-435-5524. I also have a useful tool to help you learn about past sales in your neighborhood called a Market Snapshot. Sign up for the Market Snapshot here.