1. help ya Harry - A person who looks at houses on behalf of a relative or friend. This is a regular mistake that buyer's make in my opinion. The interested buyer should be looking for themselves. Aunt Susie or Budy Brad will never know what it is exactly you want. Most Realtors are helping serious buyers & sellers. A serious buyer does the searching themselves with a Realtor of their choice.
2. Joking Jared - A Seller who wants to overlist to see what the market will bare will only grab an incompetent listing agent or agent who quite frankly, doesn't care about your goal. Instead, the listing agent will use your home as a lead generator - sign calls. Your game will be met by the listing agents game, pretty simple. Do it right, or don't do it all, that's my motto.
3. Commission focused Carl. This is the buyer or seller who DEMANDS to not pay full price when it comes to commission. When they purchase their home they seek the agent who is willing to "rebate." The productive, knowledgeable and successful agents don't slash their commission in half for anyone. When you buy a home focus on finding a home and let the agent do his or her job. If you think full service is expensive, try closing with a bottom feeder who says YES to everything you say.
4. Controlling Kathy is the unfortunate individual who feels nothing is done right unless she completely overseas all facets of the listing. If you think your agent is incompetent, don't hire them. If you do, let them focus on doing you a good job. Constantly poking, prodding and making demands makes everyones involvement hell.
5. Inspector Ingrid - Ingrid is the individual who installed boat docks back in the 70's for a living and now thinks they know everything about home construction. This follows the same lines as number 4 above. If you don't think you have the right inspector, don't hire them.
6. Lawyer Larry - This is by far my least favorite. I adore educated buyers and sellers more than you know. The more educated a consumer is, the better off everyone is in the transaction. Unfortunately, some folks watch too much Judge Judy and think they are legal pro's when it comes to real estate.
7. High Expectations Hillary - has a credit score of 127 but frequently tells Realtors, Banks, Lenders and neighbors that she has "so-so credit." No reason to be cute about your credit. We always find out, so just be honest so you don't waste anyone's time. And yes, those charge offs, tax evasions, judgments, broken leases and late child support payments do count.
8. Low Balling Lawanda - if a house is listed for 150k and the comparable sales are 157k than you got yourself, in most cases, a reasonable seller. You "starting" at $120,000 dollars is an insult, a waste of time and quite frankly, foolish. Sellers have feelings and sure as heck don't want to be insulted by buyers. Remember, Realtors do much more (or they should) than just get you a good deal. You still have to pay for what you want in this world. A buyer's market doesn't increase a sellers equity, it shrinks it.
9. I'm Calling my Lawyer Cliff - You certainly have that right and are always encouraged to obtain legal counsel, that's my obligatory introduction to numero 9 here. Making threats, pounding your fist and pretending to sue needs to be founded, reasonable and sensible - in my opinion. If a buyer needs 3 days more to close and you threaten to sue and get whacko than guess what? Just how much is that attorney going to get accomplished in 72 hours? No client of mine has ever issued the "attorney alarm" not once.
10. I'll get approved later Winthorpe - Sometimes you just know. You know if pestering a buyer for an approval letter is better left undone, but rarely. If you are a consumer reading this know that there is a saying in Real Estate that goes.. "buyers are liars." I know that's offensive, and over all a not so nice of a generalization. It would be dishonest of me to say I haven't agreed with that sentiment once in awhile. It is very unfortunate to say, but many buyers will lie about their credit, situation, job status, time frame and everything else. Why do they do this? Because they want access to a home. They know if they say they are 9 months away from buying that almost no agent would be willing to unlock the door. So they play games. If you are serious, get pre approved. If not, just say so.
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