Knowing and Handling “The Process”

“Our agent definitely helped us,” Buyer C said. “We started out knowing very little about the process of buying a property in a foreign market.”

In its profile, NAR confirmed that 93 percent of buyers consider knowledge of the purchase process to be “very important,” and 91 percent said the same thing about an agent’s knowledge of the market.

“Our agent met and surpassed our expectations,” C explained. “He was very knowledgeable about the whole process and the local market. It was a big difference compared to some of the other Realtors who only showed us a property and provided us with the standard information.”

It was different for Buyer A, who lives in Chicago and took it upon himself to do some of the research legwork beforehand – something more and more buyers are choosing to do. He said: “I started my search because I thought it was the right time to buy, and I still believe that was the case.”

During the process, A’s agent helped him work through some misunderstandings he’d gleaned from his research, but he was careful to add that in the end, he was “the one calling the shots.”

However, Buyer B mimicked C in that having her agent as an information source helped tremendously – so much so, in fact, that she had to totally rethink the neighborhoods she was looking at, this time considering practicality.

“We had originally wanted to buy a three-bedroom home in the West Loop, but we quickly discovered that there was not a lot of inventory in general, especially in our price range,” she said.

Not only did our buyers express an interest in price, but also the lending process, which is notoriously complicated. In a recent statement, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray reiterated a standing stigma surrounding lending.

“Consumers put great thought into the choice of a home, but the mortgage process continues to be intimidating,” Cordray said.

While the buyers we spoke with didn’t necessarily expect their agents to be financial wizards – Buyer C was lucky enough to have a husband in finance who was able to handle the mortgage process – some were dependent on them for at least quality referrals.

“My agent was super knowledgeable about the lending process and connected me with a company that specializes in my type of loans (USDA),” Buyer D said. “All of the time estimates I got from other lenders were 60-plus days, but this company was known to close USDA loans in 30 to 35 days.”

But not every agent knows how to handle the process.

“At first I had an agent who I didn’t care for at all,” Buyer D said. “She was unprofessional; on her phone about her other properties the whole time; showed me a house she owned and was selling (even though it was $20,000 out of my price range); and she refused to put an offer on a property because she said she was a ‘flipper’ and was putting in an offer herself.”

The initial experience was so bad for D that it prompted him to contact the agent’s brokerage and request a second agent, whom he gushed about, saying that he “loves and adores” her.

“She’s very attentive and knows her stuff,” he added.