The process of hiring a Calgary real estate agent can be challenging. How do you find the best Calgary real estate agent?
Large Calgary real estate brokers will invest thousands of dollars each month in online advertising, Yellow Pages listings, or giant billboards in Calgary’s most popular walking areas to ensure that their agents are visible.
You may not be able to find the right agent if you look at the agents with the most promotion dollars. Let’s take a look at how you can choose a good Calgary real estate agent in today’s piece.
Here are some tips for home buyers Calgary.
Find a real estate agent to help you.
Try using the phone book, checking the Internet, asking friends, or getting in touch with Glen. Be sure you feel comfortable with agents, and ask for references, experience, and success rates.
The realtor should understand all the aspects of the neighborhood, schools, and neighborhood groups in which you will be interested, as well as have experience negotiating deals in your price range.
Get a 90-day pre approval mortgage.
You can set your budget before house hunting by figuring out your maximum mortgage amount and interest rate. It also demonstrates your seriousness about buying a home to the seller.
Include additional costs in your budget, such as moving, new appliances, and utility hookups. The average cost of moving varies between $500 and $1,000. There will be about $150 to $250 in utility service charges for electricity and phone. Besides appraisals, title insurance and surveys should also be accounted for.
Use buyer leads
Buyer leads are available to any agent who has listings in your office. Statistically, two buyers closed after the listing closed. In contrast, listing agents typically refer clients to other agents within their organization or office in exchange for a share of the fee (typically 20-25 percent).
Make sure you keep the agents updated every week on the status of the leads if you decide to continue using this as a real lead generator. This can be summed up by phrases like “Buyer in the car, please bid this week”. The most common listing agent challenge involves sending leads and not hearing back from buyers’ agents.
Prepare to pay closing fees.
As a rule of thumb, put aside four percent of the price of your house to cover closing costs. Be sure you are serious about your offer before you make one. When you make your offer, you should reflect current market conditions after you’ve seen several houses.
You can increase your down payment by taking advantage of a current federal government home buyer’s program. If you are a Calgary First Time Home Buyer, you can take $20,000 out of your RRSP tax-free and repay it over 15 years.
Your home should be within your budget.
The minimum down payment is five percent, but putting more down will lower your costs. When a down payment is less than 20%, mortgage loan insurance is often required, which results in higher interest rates and additional costs.
Interesting Related Article: “What Should Real Estate Agents Know About the Millennial Market?“