Mar. 2, 2006: Realtors keep the home-buying process free of personal issues
A staple of Realtor articles is the venerable "why you should use a Realtor" column. This doesn't come unbidden to my mind, because it seems obvious to me.
As an example, when you try to sell your home yourself, you're on your own. When you list your home with me, I bring 48,000 of my colleagues - the membership of the Arizona Association of Realtors - to the table with me. I'll do a lot more than you can do on your own, and chances are I'll do it better and more efficiently than you could. But I'll also promote your home with the people most likely to have a buyer for it: other Realtors.
When I'm working as your buyer's agent, I not only do all the preliminary legwork, I drive you to see all the prospective homes and pay for the gas. I may even pop for lunch. And I do all this at no cost to you, with my compensation coming from the listing agent only if I am successful in finding you your ideal home.
I may write more in the future about the benefits of working with a Realtor, but this is the one that is most important to me: Realtors keep personal issues out of the transaction.
A real-estate transaction is financial, not personal. I like to say that every real-estate problem has a financial solution.
Not so personal problems. If there is a personal enmity between buyer and seller - over price, repairs or just because they don't like each other - there may be no resolution to the dispute.
But here's an interesting fact: They will probably never see each other again. Buyer and seller may never even meet in person, and once the transfer of deeds and funds is effected, there is no need for them to have any further contact.
The buyer wants the seller's house. The seller wants the buyer's money. And it is the job of the Realtor to keep any possible personal issues away from the transaction.
Greg Swann is the designated broker for BloodhoundRealty.com, a full-service Metropolitan Phoenix real estate brokerage. This article originally appeared in the West Valley regional sections of the Arizona Republic.
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Or: Steal this book: I've written over 200 of these real estate columns. They are consistently one of the most popular features on our blogs. Many of them are dated and/or entirely Phoenixocentric. But many others are timeless and generic. If you want to use any of my columns on your weblog or web site, feel free. Three rules: Don't change my text, credit me as the author and give me a link back to http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/ with appropriate anchor text. Something like this, perhaps:
Am I link-baiting? You bet. The quid pro quo is free content for your site that pulls eyeballs and excites interest.<a href="http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/" target="_blank"> Phoenix Realtor Greg Swann</a> suggested I share this with you:
