Well I have completed my first year in real estate and I must say that I have learned a lot about the business. 
I have some advice for buyers and sellers. There were a lot of bumps in the road but I have learned a lot along the way. It has not taken me long to develop some solid ideas of what works and what doesn't. So I have decided to point out some important things to consider if you are or are going to be a buyer or seller in the near future. 
Part One - Advice for Buyers:
• If you live in Texas, Zillow and sites like Zillow is not the place to go to find out the value of your home nor is it the place to go to search for homes. The Zillow information is inaccurate in Texas since Texas is a non disclosure state. This means that only real estate agents can tell you what homes sold for and how much they are worth in today's market. If you are serious about buying a home, then go to HAR.com. Or go to your agents or brokers website. This will have more accurate information on the homes that are for sale in your area.
• Find a buyers agent to represent you. 
Instead of calling every listing agent for every house you want to see; get one Realtor® to set up all of your showing appointments. This Realtor will be your advocate. Remember the listing agent works for the seller not the buyer. Of course the listing agent would like to get the full 6% commission and not have to pay 3% to the buyer's agent. But this leaves the buyer without fair representation. How can the agent have both the seller and the buyer's best interest in a transaction? If you do call the listing agent, they should at least at some point say, "ok if you're interested in purchasing this property I would like to refer you to an agent in my office so that you will be equally represented." If they don't suggest you get an agent, then ask them to refer you to one, or find an agent on your own.
• Remember...the realtors commission is built into the price of the home 
If you don't buy a house the agent doesn't get paid. When I first started a year ago I listed a house in Oak Forest. At my second open house for that property I met a prospective buyer. I showed her houses from September through February. She was a first time home buyer so it took her time to realize that the perfect home simply doesn't exist. After making offers on 3 homes, showing her countless upon countless homes at just about any time she wanted to go see; she decided to find another agent in which to purchase a home that I previewed for her and showed her 3 times. I was furious to say the least. It is like going to work every day for six months and your boss telling you he is not paying you for the work you have done he is going to give your paycheck to the new guy who is starting tomorrow. Now, had I not worked very hard for her I would understand; but that was not the case. It is not the realtor's fault that the buyers dream home doesn't exist in their price range. That experience cost me time and money that a new realtor simply doesn't have a lot of. It did however give me knowledge and experience of the business that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. For that I am thankful. It also taught me the importance of a buyers-Representation agreement. Although we had one it had expired.
• Foreclosures are not always the best deal . 
More times than not foreclosures are like a beautiful bed of roses; but when you walk inside you begin to get pricked by the thorns. With foreclosures, the price on the surface looks like a sweet deal. But is it really a sweet deal? Find out just how many thorns you are going to have to eliminate in order to have that bed of roses you can actually live in. You must weigh all of the pros and cons determine just how much it will cost you to make the necessary repairs and consider this into the price. Then compare this to other homes on the market in which you would not have to go into and remove thorns. More than likely you will find that the foreclosure is not as sweet a deal as it may have appeared. Of course there are exceptions to this rule. You just have to keep your options open and consider the best deal, which is often times not the foreclosure. Consider this...If you find a neighborhood that you love and most homes are going for around $200,000 but there is a foreclosure in that neighborhood for $150,000, but in order to make the home livable you are going to have to put about $50,000; is it worth it? Especially if there other homes in the neighborhood that are also being foreclosed on. This could potentially hurt the resale value of your home when you are ready to sell. The more foreclosures in a neighborhood the lower the resale values of other homes in that neighborhood. There are many reasons homes go into foreclosure. Home owners don't always go into foreclosure because they just can't pay their mortgage. Imagine this scenario. You buy a new home and a year later your floors start to buckle, the walls start to crack, the roof starts to leak inside the walls and ceiling, pipes start to bust and your home starts falling apart around you. What do you do? Do you keep paying for a home that is falling apart? As a buyer you might have to go in and spend a lot of money on foundation repair, mold removal, and other repairs that will probably end up costing you the price you would have paid for the house at regular market value if not more. In this case it is probably not worth it. On the flip side you just mind find that foreclosure that will work for you and pay off in the long run if your patient and are ready to make an offer when one doen become come available. Just remember you will probably not be the only one who makes an offer. The bank often times takes several offers before choosing the one they like the most. Therefore often times the final sale price is higher than the initial listing price.
• Dream deals do not exist. 
Today it seems that buyers are seeking the deal of a century and sellers are asking unrealistic prices for their homes. This creates a deadlock for the real estate market as a whole. Come to the realization that you may or may not make money on your home. We never really know what the market is going to do from one year to the next. All we can do is do is to do due diligence and hope we are making the right choice. If you can break even, great if you do better than then wonderful. Of course we all want to make money on our real estate investment, but this should not be the driving force behind our search for our homestead. Consider this...If the deal was so sweet, too good to be true this it probably is too good to be true. If it was that great of a deal then more than likely the realtor or broker would have bought it first since they have the opportunity to see it before you do.
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Be careful with for sale by owners. For sale by owner s is not necessarily a good idea without an agent on your side. Rarely can a buyer and seller complete the deal on a home sale without the assistance of an attorney or a real estate professional to help the deal move along all the way to the closing table. For sale by owners are trying to sell their home without the use of an agent which means they are trying to save money, cut corners so if you are not a good negotiator with an unbiased interest in the deal, it will be very difficult to come to terms that both parties will be satisfied with. So unless you know every aspect of the home buying process get an agent to help you. If the for sale by owner won't even agree to pay 3% to the buyer's agent, what makes you think he will be willing to come down 5-10% for the home, do any repairs, or make any concession in the deal.
To real more about what advice I have to home buyers and sellers after my first year of real estate check outMy First Year - Part Two: Advice for Sellers
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