About 10 days ago I got into a lengthy conversation with my brother who lives back in Michigan regarding real estate. He wanted to know what were the 6 or 8 most essential questions a buyer should be asking of their Realtor when they start narrowing down their search to specific areas in the county? Here is how I answered him.
A buyer should ask many of these questions regarding the various neighborhoods where they are looking: (A) How many foreclosure or short sale properties have there been in the last several years in this subdivision? (B) How many homes sold in this neighborhood in the last year? (C) How many homes are currently on the market in this neighborhood? (D) What is the average days on the market? (E) How do each of those figures compare to the year before? (E) What percent of the homes in the neighborhood are owner occupied versus investor occupied? (F) But, the singular most important question is, do I like this neighborhood enough to live there and raise my family there? The decision to buy should not be based solely on “getting a great deal” but very much needs to be tempered with how well you like the area.
All of these would be good questions for your Realtor. Every Realtor ought to be able to answer all of these questions, assuming they have any sort of a competent MLS system. The Realtor’s favorite lender probably has the answer about the owner occupancy percentage because that is something that has to be included in the appraisal process. Assuming that lender has been around for any period of time, he or she may keep a little chart of those percentages. That percentage could have a major impact on the type of interest rate a buyer would pay to the lender. Another area that we discussed was homeowners associations. A good lender and a good Realtor will also likely know which homeowner associations you may want to avoid for various reasons. Nobody wants to move in were the Gestapo committee runs the association.
There is a difference between the kind of representation you get broker to broker so if you are still undecided which broker to choose, these might be some of the types of questions that you would ask in a buyer broker interview.
All of us at Team Lorenz with The Wells Group would be happy to help you in your search for Durango CO real estate. Click on the following link and it will take you directly to my website and allow you to search the entire MLS: Durango CO Real Estate
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