Reviewing Up Close and From a Distance - All Part of a Realtor's Day

If you are a Realtor, your whole day is often spent in review. When I was out on the banks of Spring Creek in Hot Springs, NC the other day it was a great opportunity to review a lot of things in my head.

There are so many things to put in perspective and look at both close up and from a distance. We are involved in the buyers’ side of a transaction right now and that’s where my head was.

With buyers we start out looking close up during the first substantive dialog with the people we will be working so closely with. Not only do we need to make sure the chemistry is there to sustain what might be a long term relationship, we need to be sure the buyers are as sincere as we are. The first real clue to their level of commitment happens during the Agency Disclosure review, in our case “Working With Real Estate Agents”. If they’re engaged in the discussion about what is clearly in their best interest, this is the first step of a close up review for us. Welcoming and entering into a Buyer Agency Agreement is the second step. Open dialog about finances is the third and final initial close up review in this early stage. We understand if buyers didn’t realize that we as agents need them to get themselves pre-qualified, but once they are told that they themselves need this information before looking at houses and they refuse, this is a big red flag that someone’s not serious.

Once our relationship with the buyers is on firm ground, we review what they’re looking for from a distance. Listening to their needs, wants and hopes for their house and casting out a wide net when reviewing potential houses is looking at things from a distance. Winnowing down the list to a likely list of great candidates requires close up review.

When THE house has been selected, prepping for the initial offer is back to reviewing from a distance -everything the buyer would hope for in a contract. Reviewing close up takes those hopes and distills them down to reasonable expectations.

Once we have a contract, from here on out until we reach the closing table, everything is a close up review. Making sure that all docs owed to the buyer are received, arranging for inspections, reviewing inspection results, analyzing the results for further negotiations, staying in touch with attorneys and lenders, all of this requires the utmost concentration and up close review.

Spring Creek in Hot Springs, NC provided the perfect backdrop for putting some order in my brain. Once in a while, we need to review this profession from a distance and realize that many of us who really care about what we do for a living might make this process look seamless and easy but, we should all keep in mind that it isn’t easy and we are out there providing an invaluable service.