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REAL
ESTATE IN A NUTSHELL
PART 1
- “LISTEN TO
YOURSELF!”
or A BLIND
DATE ...WITH A REALTOR
By Victor
Kiritchenko, a Realtor with RE/MAX of Nanaimo.
victor-k@shaw.ca,
www.victor-k.com 250-751-1223
So you
are thinking of buying, selling (or both - first selling,
then buying) a house (condo, townhouse, land, etc)? Good!
It’s not
easy… it’s VERY easy! Just use a lot of common sense and
read below about some things to do and especially NOT to do
in this case.
To do:
If you have a computer and
Internet access, go to Realtor.ca, choose your preferred
area and see what similar properties are selling for.
Of course, you think you
already know what your house is worth, right? Wrong! You
will be amazed how different the reality is from what you
thought.
(Usually owners overprice
their houses by 10% (unless they are Realtors themselves,
then it's ... 20%!)
If you don’t have a computer …
just get one, they are very affordable these days and you
need it anyway (even if you don’t realize it yet, name one
person who used to have a computer and gave it up).
Newspapers? Not the best idea,
because some listings there either don’t have the price, the
address of the property, or both. You will get tired of
calling just to find out it’s the wrong area or the price is
out of your range.
The best of all is to go to
the open houses. Look for properties both similar to your
own house, which you are thinking of selling, and to those
you are planning to buy.
You will kill a few birds with
one stone:
- Learn a lot about the
“live”, not virtual (like on the computer screen or
newspaper page) market, because these two might be quite
different from each other.
- Have a lot of fun, checking
out neighbours’ houses and seeing how messy Mrs. Smith is
and the weird colour her husband chose for their deck.
-
Meet realtors in
person. It’s a much better idea than just dropping into a
Real Estate office, because you would be referred to whoever
is on duty at that time.
Sure, you can listen to your
aunt Betty, who just sold her house with a “wonderful, just
wonderful guy”, but the problem is YOU might find that
person not so wonderful yourself.
What are the criteria in
choosing a realtor (either to buy or to sell a property)?
First of all listen to yourself; you might not know too much
about real estate, but you certainly know about people.
Trust your own instincts! It's like a blind date – usually
you like or dislike a person instantly.
For
instance, it doesn't matter what it’s for – either a TV or a
mattress, I simply don't deal with anybody who either greets
me with “what’s up, buddy?”, is too persistent trying to get
my phone number, or - and this is my favourite - who never
runs out of excuses, being late for appointments and
forgetting to return phone calls or e-mails.
AFTER,
not before you feel good about your candidate being YOUR
Realtor, ask about his/her experience, familiarity with the
area, etc and then make your decision… still without making
a commitment yet.
Why?
Read about it in the next article of this cycle, or if you
are impatient like me, go
here to read it right now!
Questions? You can ask them either through email
victor-k@shaw.ca or by calling 250-751-1223 at any time.
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