Basics of Property Management: Screening Potential Tenants

2 Reasons To Utilize A Real Estate Agent When House Hunting

2 February 2015

Jesse Obrien

Finding a new home that matches all of your criteria can be extremely difficult, especially when you consider how many homes for sale are on the market. Two of the easiest ways to find a new home are to utilize a real estate agent or a website, with the agent providing a few benefits that a website cannot match. Two reasons to utilize a real estate agent are to be shown the greatest number of homes and to get assistance with financing.

Greatest Number of Homes

One of the biggest benefits to utilizing a real estate website is that it can show you a large number of homes from the convenience of your home. However, this system will come with a few limitations.

For example, the website will only have homes that the sellers or their agents took the time to put up on the website. This can be a problem because it leaves out quite a few houses that may be listed with real estate agents, but have simply not been added to the site. 

Another limitation with the website is that it will only show you houses that meet your exact criteria in terms of price, square footage, and other items. However, if you have a real estate agent, he or she will be able to show you homes that may not match all of your criteria, but at least come close. This is great if not all of your criteria are "must haves."

For example, if your "must have" criteria is that the house be located in a certain neighborhood, then the real estate agent can show you houses for sale in that area that may not match your other criteria, such as the number of rooms. This allows you to at least see all of your options and decide what is more important for you, the location or the number of rooms.

Assistance With Financing

Now, a real estate agent is not going to be a financial expert and will most likely not be able to actually provide you with financing, but they can help you a bit with the process. The real estate agent can help you get in touch with lenders that he or she has dealt with in the past that can help with difficult financing situations. For example, the agent could put you in touch with a lender that specializes in helping people with low income or poor credit get into a home. 

Speak to a real estate agent today in order to start the hunt for your new home. A real estate agent can ensure that you are exposed to the greatest number of potential homes while also being able to provide you with assistance in obtaining a home loan.

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