So this is what writer's block feels like. I admit I have been pretty busy the last while, but I have also had writer's block. If I ever catch the guy who invented blogging, I will have a word or two for him.

Now I don't know if I've overcome it or not, but I'm going to spend some time with a topic that never goes away: What is the Value of A REALTOR®?

Real Estate Knowledge

This one is always a tough one because real estate, like stocks and other investments, tends to be a perennial favourite topic for discussion and there is no shortage of "experts". Not a day goes by where I don't run in to 3 or 4 individuals who know more about real estate than I'll ever know, and they learned it with just 3 easy payments of $39,99 (and they got a set of ginzu knives too!). Some have even paid thousands of dollars to hear experts tell them how they can get the deal of a century every week (then why is it called the deal of a cenury? Isn't that the deal of a week?) and get the seller to finance it for them, and get someone else to pay for it. Wow.

But every now and then I pick up a new client who just listens (which is good because I sure know how to talk), and usually these clients that just listen tend to own a lot of property that they acquired through time, effort, and listening, lots of listening.

So what kinds of things do real estate agents know that is so helpful? Where do I begin? While we are not lawyers, mortgage brokers, appraisers, inspectors, counsellors, interior decorators, or anything else, we tend to know when to ring the alarm bells in any of these situations and get the experts in. We also tend to know the danger points for clients to just walk away from. Just a few examples for you from the area most likely to cause you heartache, pain, and a lighter wallet, the law. Tell me, when does the Dower Act apply to a trade in real estate and how many times (and at what times) does a non-registered spouse have to sign consent? For how long can an offer be withdrawn and what are the acceptable methods of communication withdrawl? What are the consequences of communicating in an unacceptable manner? What manner and forms of Real Property Reports are acceptable? Who decides? What is the significance of a poorly worded finance condition? If I find another property I like better than the one I just had my offer accepted on, can't I just not remove my conditions on the first deal and go buy the second one?

The answers to those few questions alone could easily cost you more than an agent's commission. But there's more, tons more. Zoning and compliance issues. If my driveway encroaches onto the neighbor's land, how do I need to deal with this? Who pays? I want to buy a building to use for a funeral home and this property is perfect. Will the City allow it? How will I know in advance? I want to buy a piece of land to develop, what are the major issues to consider? How much will it cost to find out and where do I go to find out? I want to buy this property but don't kow if the City will allow me to build the big garage I want, how can I quickly find out?

That is only the beginning. We may not be experts in any of these areas, but we know enough about each professional area required to save clients tons of time and money - and speaking of time...

Time

What is your time worth? Why would you want to spend your valuable time finding the answers to all these questions when your real estate agent can handle most of it quicker and more efficiently than you can. Sure there are a few folks who love doing this stuff and we will never be able to help that client, but that is a very small minority of people.

In this age of the internet you can be your own accountant, doctor, lawyer, mechanic, builder, home renovation specialist, chief cook and bottle washer. Now I don't know about you, but I would much rather spend my days golfing than doing all that stuff. Anyone can save a ton of money doing all these jobs - but why? We all only have so much time in a day. Spend it doing what you are best at and be efficient and effective in the use of your time. But more importantly, when you do all your own doctoring, lawyering, and bottle washing, you're going to make mistakes, and costly ones at that.

Some years back, being a pretty smart fellow, I designed and built our first home all by myself. Bet you couldn't do that! I'm a genius and I saved a bunch of money - or so I thought. When we went to sell the home some years later, I clearly recall the comments of one of the agents at the REALTORS® open house; "Who designed this place?" Fortunately I have a good sense of humour and still chuckle about it but he made a good point. Not knowing I was the designer to blame, he pointed out a few major errors that I never ever saw before that day. Needless to say, the home sold for substantially less than similar size and age homes. So did I really save a bunch of money doing it myself? No, I just wasted two years out of my life.

The list goes on and on, but another important reason to have a REALTOR® on your side is objectivity.

Emotions

Wherever our money is involved we lose our objectivity and our emotions begin to creep in and mess up our decision making process. The classic example that residential real estate agents have seen over and over is the couple that doesn't buy the home of their dreams because the deal died $2000 apart. The seller wouldn't come down the last $2000 and the buyer wouldn't come up the last $2000 and $11.69/month killed a beautiful thing.

Or the worse scenario is when a buyer falls in love with a property (investors do this too sometimes) and lose their common sense, buying a property with red flags all over it. A good real estate agent will talk a client through both of these scenarios to everyone's best interest.

I could go on and on with this stuff, but in the interests of brevity, let me leave you with one more major benefit; market insight

Market Knowledge

There are all kinds of competitors to the MLS® popping up on the internet these days, each claiming to be the cheap and easy way to self-value your home. The problem is that that isn't quite accurate. The statement isn't quite accurate because the values on these systems aren't quite accurate. Properly valuing a home takes a lot more than just reviewing a few "comparables". Who picked the comparables? What adjustments did that person make? How did they arrive at their adjustments? Were they emotionally attached to the property? Whether we want to admit it or not, three things are perenially true in real estate

1) Home sellers tend to overvalue their properties

2) Home buyers tend to undervalue the properties they are buying (after first overvaluing the home they are selling)

3) A good REALTOR® is so good at valuing properties, they often intuitively know the value of a propety within 2-4% of its value within 2 minutes.

Again, this knowledge alone can save you far more than the agent's paltry commission. What is the consistent result when a seller overprices their property? Time and time again, almost without fail, it sells for significantly less than it would have if they had listened to their agent in the first place.

Do I really need to go on? I hope you see the self-evident answer. No I don't. Now go seek out a good, professional REALTOR®