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It puzzles people from other countries as to why Americans
are so mobile. This is especially
true with the current technological gold rush going on in the Puget Sound area.
Washington State is currently growing as more people are moving into the
area to take advantage of our booming economy.
As part of a four part series, I will be covering what resources are out
there in the real estate arena to assist people in moving into the Puget Sound
Area, and the final part of the series will cover how a relocation service can
assist companies in building their businesses. When contemplating a move to another part of the country or
even the world, would you just move and not have a contact in the new area?
Of course not, that would be foolhardy at best.
So, how does someone new to the region find out where to buy a home? By getting a referral to a trusted professional real estate
professional, the agent is the first contact that an out of state buyer has with
the region. As the buyers
consultant and information source, the agent is best poised to point the buyer
to information about each of the neighborhoods of interest.
Agents know the schools, the community, the restaurants, the parks and
the style of each of neighborhoods. As
the buyers' consultant, an agent can recommend a community or neighborhood based
on the buyer's own lifestyle and criteria. This is an important first step in narrowing down an area
into a more specific home search. Once
an out-of-state buyer has winnowed down the search to the neighborhood, the
shopping for a home begins. This is
where the buyer must rely on the agent's expertise.
While buyers can assist the agent by shopping for home in the Internet,
and signing up for an email delivery of new homes on the market, once a home has
been selected, the agent's job becomes more complex.
Agents are especially important when it comes time to negotiate on a bid. As the out of area buyer's advocate, the agent can do the
running around and footwork that is often needed in the initial process of
buying a home, faxing the documents back to the buyer at their current location.
The agent is the expert on the current market conditions and the
intricacies of Puget Sound real estate, and can act as a resource for the buyer
on these as well. The agent also
wades through the complex legal real estate transaction forms and mortgage
financing, saving the out of state buyer time, money and energy better spent on
getting ready for the move. As the home buying process comes to completion, the agent will be there is assist in the details of the closing and again be a resource for actually moving into the home. It is hard enough to buy a home across town, but throw in the additional stress of moving across the country, the value of a trusted real estate agent becomes even more apparent. A successful move requires someone to handle all of the details at the other end. Having a trusted real estate consultant assisting on some of these details will make all the difference in mitigating some of the stress. |
