Today I want to talk about the importance of finding a realtor you can trust and will do a great job representing you.  Too often I have found that a buyer almost randomly picked a realtor to help them buy a home. Sometimes, the sales agent has an active license but doesn’t really work as an active agent. Sometimes they are an active agent but not too intelligent about what they are doing. I really don’t understand why people chose to use their cousin’s friend Billy Bob or Sally from their church without asking for credentials.  Would you go to a doctor for surgery without knowing if they have ever done surgery before? Or maybe they have done surgery for an ingrown toenail but not the brain surgery you are contemplating having.

OK, I know, real estate isn’t brain surgery.  But, if you don’t use someone that will represent you well, you can lose your shirt or a pair of socks or something….. Wait, the analogy is breaking down and getting mixed.  Let me step back and be more specific.  An inexperienced real estate person can cost you six ways (maybe more).

I think this submission is getting a bit long in the tooth so I will continue later with the top ten list of things to find out when selecting an agent to help you buy a home. As always, constructive comments are welcome.  -Steve Kent

Today, I am going to talk about how to shop for money.  Like most things you shop for, the more time you spend getting familiar with the product and the seller in this case the lending process, your credit scores, the types of loans available and rates, the better.  As you will soon learn, it isn’t just about the rates as you need to understand a few other things too.  One of the big things I tell my clients is that home sellers are savvier now then ever and they are looking at your offer in much more detail including determining who your lender is. 

As I write this today, we are in an unusual market. In certain areas such as Cupertino and Saratoga, there isn’t much inventory and good properties are selling fast with multiple offers.  In other areas like South San Jose and Alum Rock, inventory is growing and it is taking longer to get an offer. 

When faced with multiple offers, I have been extraordinarily successful.  Why? Partly because my buyers almost always are qualified by a known and reputable lender.  Which brings me to one of my big points, work with well established and reputable lenders.  There are many reasons to do so but the example above is a good one.  The sellers and the seller’s agent will put more weight on your offer if they believe the lender is solid. 

And then there are the nightmares.  Imagine removing your loan contingencies and exposing your full deposit as “At Risk” and them learning that what you thought was a solid loan evaporated and now you are scrambling to find another lender that can step up and has a loan package that you can afford.  I have seen this last scenario more often than once.  It is all too common that a buyer will be pre-approved for a loan based on little or no thought.  Later when the buyer has spent hundreds of dollars on appraisals and inspection reports and is in the last few days before contingencies are to be removed only to find that his solid loan doesn’t exist.  It is hard to scramble from a position of weakness when you have only days to find an alternate loan.

Summing it up: Use a reputable lender that has a reputation of being solid. It will make a difference on your offer and will make for a smooth transaction.