Thank you for considering the Blessed Life
Realty Group to help you find your dream
home!
Below
is a list of interview questions and my answers to help get the ball rolling
(and this will give you a good idea of how we work and give the best
representation and service to our clients).
One
more side note, this is a thorough list! I’ve been selling real estate in
Austin, TX and the surrounding suburbs since 2004. This is a list of
questions from two attorneys that I represented years ago (and they are still
some of my top referral sources). I just thought you might like to know this
fun tid bit.
On
to the interview!
Experience Questions:
• How
many people are you currently assisting in finding a house? On
average, I usually have at least 3 or 4 buyers that I actively work with at a
time. I have a team with a full-time admin and agent, and two part-time
assistants. We are a group of mothers that take care of business, our clients
and each other to provide the highest level of service. We love our jobs!
• How
many buyers will you work with at one time? How many sellers? The
maximum number of buyers that I will work with at one time is 8 (keep in mind
that I have awesome licensed showing partners that helps me get you into the
home in case I am not available. Speed counts in this market and has for the
last 10+ years. This is why we use this strategy. I've had 10 listings at one
time during the summer. Typically, agents can handle more listings than buyers.
Buyers require 5-10 more hours of work on average.
• Will
you be representing other buyers who are looking for homes in the same area and
price
range as we are? Possibly. This situation happens, yet it
happens rarely. I will talk with both clients about the situation and do what
the client desires. If one of the buyers is uncomfortable with the situation,
then I can have another agent on my team step in to help them. This has worked
smoothly in the past and we are happy to provide you with a past clients that experienced
this scenario to help you get more comfortable with your decisions.
• How
many homes, on average, do you show your buyers? This
depends on the market. In a buyers’ market, there
are more homes to see and buyers on average will see 5 to 15 homes. In a sellers’
market, it's usually closer to 5 homes. Our goal is always to find the home
within 5 homes in either market.
• What
is your experience in the locations we are looking at? We
have sold homes in Austin and in every suburban city surrounding Austin, from
Georgetown to Buda. I've been a Realtor (and now Broker) since 2004 and have
lived in North and South Austin, Lakeway and Cedar Park.
• What
percentage of the homes you've sold or located are in our search area? This
will be specific to the buyer that is interviewing us.
Happy to provide this information.
• Do
you specialize in a certain area of town? No, we
work all of Austin and the surrounding areas. We can advise you to make a good
investment and smart real estate decision in any
area of town (that is if you have already picked the area of town you want to
live, many times we are advising on this question first).
• Do
you have a price-range you specialize in? No, We
have experience in the $100K price range and the $100,000,000+ price range (and
everything in between). We are in this business to help people, no matter the
price range.
•
How many homes did you sell in the past year as a buyer's agent? Since
2013, we help from 50-100 clients a year.
• How
do you stay up on current trends? Do you take classes or frequently attend
training? We attend classes monthly. And we are in
an office with 400+ agents and leaders in our market. If something is happening
or about to happen in the market, we most likely I know about it (thanks to my
office and the amount of business that we do). Be weary of the lone agent that
doesn't have a big office. Unless he is constantly researching and reading the
news (which who has time for that when you are out showing homes and doing
business?), I doubt he has the current trends knowledge base that I do being
with the top producing broker in town that is Keller Williams Realty, Inc.
•
How do you stay up on proposed developments that will impact a property? I
started in this business in a commercial office and have experience working on
commercial zoning projects. Understanding the rezoning process can really give
an agent insight into how commercial development will impact a home or
neighborhood. The best place in Austin to stay up on proposed developments is
the Austin Business Journal, attend a city council meeting and/or pay a visit
to the development department of the city. We will help you with all of these
things if you are focusing on a property that may be affected
by commercial development or zoning.
Price/Financing
Questions
• How
do we know if this is the right time to buy? This
is a question that we will help each individual buyer analyze.
Considerations will include whether you have been renting or own a home (if
renting, I've helped too many buyers choose the right area make money on homes
in a 3-5 year period, just on appreciation alone. Many times it's
more money than clients have in their IRAs or 401Ks. Real estate can be such a
great investment, especially in this market!).
• Will
you help us decide if our desired price range is appropriate? Can you help us
choose
a good price range? This part of the process is where we
lean on my favorite loan officer to help guide you. And we
will help guide you on what areas are best for the price range in which you are
pre-approved. We also advise to choose a price range
with a monthly payment in which you are very comfortable paying and be as
conservative as possible. We want homeownership to empower you, not stress
you out when you make your monthly payment.
•
How will you help us determine if our down-payment is appropriate? This
will depend on the financial and real estate market. If it's a strong
sellers’ market, showing at least 20% down on your offer will communicate
to the seller that you are a strong buyer and will help us when we are
competing against other offers. Yet, we have helped many clients buy homes with zero down payment, 3%, 5%, or 10% down purchase homes in any market.
•
How can you help us determine if an offer we make is good one? When
you want to make an offer on a home, we will discuss the sold prices of comparable
properties and current market conditions. I also have the advantage that I'm
with an office with more than 400 agents and involved in many transactions
throughout the year, so we can help you write an offer according to the
negotiation style you want and rate of success you desire.
•
How will you leverage the best deal for us? We
will discuss reasonable expectations for the definition what getting a
"deal" in our current market means.
• How
will you handle multiple offers? Thankfully, we are very successful at
winning in multiple-offer situations for our clients. We have
some strategies that we can discuss and implement if you like. Remember,
you are the boss. We are going to present to you all of the options and tell
you which one we think is best and then you are in charge of deciding how we
handle the multiple offer based on our consultation.
•
Tell us about the inspection process. How do we renegotiate the offer if the
inspection reveals
a problem? Will you attend our inspection? We
have a list of inspectors that we work with regularly. We will get bids and
availability from them and then let you choose whom you want to move forward
with (unless you have an inspector you would like to use already). We may or
may not attend the inspection. We do recommend buyers attend the inspection to
learn more about the home. We will come by and review with the inspector at the
end of the inspection if this is recommended by the inspector. If repairs
are necessary, this is how I suggest we negotiate: 1. Our client’s
safety is of the utmost importance to us. If anything on the report needs
to be repaired that may affect your safety when you move in the home. Then
these are items that must get fixed. 2. Any repairs that are lender required.
3. We will get you estimates on the repairs, so we can either ask the seller to
make the repairs or discount the sales price or give you money towards closings
costs so that you may monitor the repairs when you own the home.
•
What are the average closing costs your buyers have had recently? Are there
possible hidden/
costs we might encounter? Average costs to buy a home to expect
will be 2-3% of the home value that you will need to bring to closing on top of
your down payment. The lender will give you an estimate showing you all of the
fees involved. Some of those costs may involve setting up the escrow account so
that the mortgage bank can pay your tax
bill at the end of the year. Other costs to expect, depending on the size and
age of the home $400-$700 for home inspection (more for a pool), $500-$700 if home is on septic (pumping
and inspection), older homes need a hydro-static plumbing test $300-$400, $500-$600
for appraisal once under contract (possibly more if a rush fee is needed or it
is a luxury property of $1 Million plus). At least 1% of sales price will be
needed for an earnest money check (this will be credited back to you at closing
and more may be needed if competing in multiple offers) and $150 - $700 for the
option to terminate the contract (also, more may be needed here if competing with
other offers.) Depending on the market, we may be able to negotiate funds for closing costs and we can discuss this further when we meet.
Misc.
Questions
•
How are you compensated? Compensation for a buyer's agent is a flexible arrangement that
we'll discuss when we first meet. We'll go over a Buyer's Representation
agreement that outlines the different ways we can be paid for the real estate
services we provide, as well as review an estimate of all of the costs that you may incur when buying a home for you to review and approve.
By August 17th, 2024, the MLS will no longer allow listings to advertise if there is compensation being offered to pay a buyer's agent. This means that we will research every listing on and off the market that matches your criteria to see if compensation is being offered or not before we tour the property (and disclose this to you before you decide to tour the home). There may be instances where a seller or listing agent does not offer compensation to buyer's agents. In such cases, with your permission, we will negotiate with the listing agent or owner to attempt to secure buyer agent compensation before we tour the home or workout a plan for compensation for you to approve.
In my 19+ years of experience as a real estate agent and now broker in Texas, I've successfully worked out compensation arrangements with listing agents or owners when it wasn't initially offered. We are skilled in negotiation and have brought hundreds of sellers and buyers together for successful transactions. Rest assured, our top priority is representing your best interests and ensuring transparency regarding how we are compensated.
Remember, commission is negotiable, and if you decide to purchase a home that doesn't offer compensation, we'll discuss all available options and help you make the best decision for you and your family. Our ultimate goal is to provide exceptional service, earn your satisfaction, and build a long-lasting client relationship, which means we want you to fully understand and agree with our compensation structure.
•
Will you always be the one showing us houses and contacting the seller's agent? Correct.
My licensed showing partner may show you some homes if I am not available.
•
How accessible are you since we may have to act within hours on a property? How
often will
we talk to you? You can text/email/call us anytime. We
have a team of 2 agents and 2 licensed assistants that will be able to help us
see a home if we need to within hours (if I am not available).
•
How much notice do you need if we want to look at a home? Most
homes require at least an hour. Some require up to 24 hours. As
much notice as we can give, the better.
•
What are your negotiation techniques? Our first priority is to present
you with the different options and strategies I can use to negotiate on your
behalf and then you will choose which strategy you want to implement (we will
tell you which one we think is best, of course). Point is that we will
not negotiate a certain way without your permission. We hold your interest
above our own and we have a fiduciary duty to you.
•
How will you search for properties that may not be listed in MLS (those sold by
the owner)? We are
always on the hunt for "coming soon" properties. We will also call
other dominant and active agents in the area to find these properties. It
also helps we are with a big office and company that does more business than
any company in town. We are also a part of the Austin Luxury Network, a MLS
where many of the luxury properties in Austin are listed before they are listed
in the Austin Board of Realtors MLS (Now called UnlockMLS.com).
•How
do you represent us in a for sale by owner situation? Many
FSBO sellers are still offering to pay a commission to buyer's agents in our
market. Let us call on your behalf to get more information and set up a
showing. If the FSBO seller does not want to work with agents, we can step back
and still help keep you protected through the process. We’ve been very
successful working with FSBO sellers and our clients to make a deal work.
•
What about foreclosure situations? How do those work? In my
opinion, the least risky foreclosures to buy are the ones listed in the MLS by
an REO specialist. We will set up a private website for you to view homes and
this will also include foreclosure homes on the market and we will email you as
new properties are listed or prices are adjusted. If you
want to pursue bidding on foreclosures posted on the county courthouse steps, we
suggest buyers have a lot of cash on hand for this type of purchase and are
comfortable purchasing a home without viewing it first and without title
insurance. And another thought to add to this question, many of the foreclosures
in our market are homes that were rejected by the market when the owners tried
to sell before foreclosure. We often see history repeat itself in this business
and this should be seen as a warning that if you bought that foreclosure
property, you may face the same fate you if you needed to sell (depending on
the market, of course).
• Do I need a Realtor when
I buy a new home? Anytime
you a buy a home, new or resale, hiring a Realtor with experience to look after
your best interests through the process is a must! New homes especially come
with unique challenges throughout the process. You can make so many mistakes
while building a home or buying a spec home (from picking the wrong lot,
over-improving the home, risking earnest money before you know the final cost of
your home...that one is my favorite that many builders like to do to buyers in
our market.) My team has a separate set of checklists for purchasing a new
home that will help keep the process as smooth as possible for you.
Final
Questions
• What expectations do you
have of us as the buyer? We always turn this around and ask what
expectations you have of me as your agent. Most people say honesty and we are
always above and beyond in that department. And we expect the same thing from our
clients. We are not the type of agents that will
pressure you into buying a home. We want to give you all of the information you
need to make the best decision for yourself and your family. Buying a home is a
journey and we want to make it as pleasant and smooth as we can for you.
•
What questions did we not ask? A smart question to ask is whether it is
a buyer's or seller's market. And if you are interviewing more than one agent
for the job, this is a great question to ask every agent. I'm surprised how
many agents listen to the national news to answer this question. During the Great
Recession, many agents in Austin would tell you it was a buyer's market. Yet,
my answer would be it would depend on the neighborhood or part of the city and
then explain how to calculate absorption rate and determine whether it is a buyers/sellers
market. I won't go into it with this answer, yet I've seen even certain streets
within neighborhood be a buyer's market and the rest of the neighborhood be a
seller's market. This is knowledge you need whether you are buying or selling
that will help you during negotiations and with your expectations for the sale.
So important and not many agents know how to calculate this correctly.
Laura Ivy Blessing blogs
about the Austin, TX known and lesser-known happenings with a splash of real
estate savvy for today's buyers, sellers and investors. Please call her today
to consult and advise you through your next real estate transaction. Blessing@KW.com 512-789-5087
