Hey everybody, you know what? The real estate market can be daunting and confusing for a lot of folks. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to answer the top questions asked in Real Estate for buyers and sellers right here in Cherokee County.
Why Is Location Important?
All right, to help demystify the industry, I’m going to go through the top misconceptions of real estate for you. So one of the first things that you always hear whenever you tune into real estate is location, right? Everybody’s heard, “Oh, it’s all about “location, location, location.” Now, when we talk about location, we’re not talkin’ about, you know, having a property on a beautiful mountainside that’s overlooking a gorgeous view. Yeah, that’s important. But more realistically, in our area right here in Cherokee County, is the location and the proximity it is too great schools, to shopping, entertainment, maybe a quick drive to the highway to get on the expressway, ’cause we have commutes, and so on and so forth. Those things really more or less determine and define what location means to us. It’s really more of a convenience than it is having this beautiful mountain view up in the North Georgia mountains. So, when we talk about location, that’s pretty much what we’re really talking about. Interestingly enough, right here in Cherokee County and our market area, school systems our real driving force. And most buyers in our area really want to be in a specific school that they want their kids to go to. We find that the school districts are a huge driving factor with the location of where people want to be.
Commission
Another top question a that I want to demystify is about commissions. Now, most people think that commissions are set in stone and they’re not negotiable. That’s just simply not true. There’s a wide range of different services the different agents provide. And of course, there’s a different commission with what those services are. Some agents don’t provide a lot of assistance. We call those discount brokers. So they’re only going to provide very few, very little services to you, but their fees are associated or in line with what they’re going to provide. And then we have other agents that provide a whole litany of services that are provided to you. And of course, their commissions are in line with what they’re providing you. So there’s a wide spectrum of different services that are provided, and of course, the commission structure that is associated with all of those. Now, it is very typical right here in Cherokee County, that buyers don’t typically pay their agents. Their agents are actually paid through the listing agent on the home that they’re actually helping their buyers purchase. So if you’re a buyer, you’re not going to negotiate any commissions with your agent that’s representing you on the buy-side. On the sell side, absolutely. So don’t think it’s just set in stone. However, really sit down with the agents, shop around, and find out what services and value are you getting for the commissions that they are proposing for you. So that’s commissions.
Dual Agent
The third thing is a dual agent. There’s a lot of questions about what a dual agent is and is not. So, what a dual agent is, is when you have an agent that is representing the buyer and the seller on the purchase of a home. They’re representing both parties. When that occurs, all parties must agree that an agent is going to be taking the role of a dual agent. If anyone is not comfortable with that, the agents are going to have to bring in another party so both parties are independently represented. If all parties say, “Yeah, no big deal. “I don’t care if the same agent is representing both sides.” Understand they’re not actually representing you anymore. They’re taking a role of a neutral party, so you’re going to be unrepresented, they’re going to be very neutral, they’re going to be very transactional-based, but they’re not going to be an advocate for either side. So dual agent is something that’s a lot of misconceptions around that. All parties have to agree to a dual agency. So you do have that right to ask for your own individual representation if that does occur.
Mortgage Preapproval
Okay, the other top question asked in real estate is what is mortgage preapproval. What the heck does that mean? As a buyer here in Cherokee County, that means that you have already sat down, talked to a lender, and that lender has pre-approved you based on some initial information that they have given you. They’ve also taken that information and they have verified that that information is accurate, and they will give you a letter that is a pre-approval letter. It basically turns you as a buyer into a cash buyer, ’cause now as you present an offer to a seller, the seller looks at it and says, “Oh cool, they have already been pre-approved for money. “I don’t have that risk involved with this person, “not being able to get financing to purchase this home.” So, the seller becomes much more comfortable with accepting your offer, knowing that you’ve got financing to back you up. So a pre-approval letter is very important to have. It is not a final approval for financing. It is the initial step that you have taken with a lender to provide them the initial information. And based on that initial information, they’ve gone ahead and said, “Yes, based on what we have, “it looks like this person’s going to get financing.” From there, it is a, typically anywhere from a 14 to 35-day process to get you finally approved for a loan, and that doesn’t take place until you have a contract on a house. Most lenders are not going to go through that process until you actually have a contract on a house. So that’s what the pre-approval process is.
Curb Appeal
All right, let’s talk about curb appeal, and what exactly does curb appeal mean? Now, most people, when they think of curb appeal, they think about making sure that they have planted out and their shrubs are trimmed up, however, it’s much broader than that. So I always tell people, “Just think broader.” It can actually reach over into what the entire picture of your home looks like when a potential buyer drives by. We have a lot of sellers that are actually working with neighbors that may end up asking their neighbors to kind of clean some stuff up. Watch my blog on HOAs and why HOAs are so important. That’ll help you a lot with what neighbors are doing to their properties. But make sure the house is clean, and I mean, the house has been washed. There are house washing services. So it’s sparkly, it’s clean, your gutters are cleaned out, there are no rusting gutters hangin’ off. And yes, it does include the plants and shrubs and maintaining a beautiful lawn, but it goes much beyond just the shrubs and plants themselves. So that’s what we refer to, in Cherokee County anyway, when we talk about curb appeal. You want to take a step back, look out from the street, and look at the entire property from the curb itself, and make sure that it is the best lookin’ house on the market. So that’s curb appeal.
So as you can see, the top questions asked in Real Estate don’t get answered that often. I hope this was valuable to you. Give me a thumbs up if you thought this was valuable, make sure you Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and please reach out to us if you want to talk any further about any of the terms that we talked about. Or if you’re interested in buying and selling, we’re here to help you right here in Cherokee County. And thank you very much for listening. Everybody have a great day.
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