Dealing With Real Estate Agents And Other Real Estate Resources

My parents (Hi Mom and Dad!) are planning to buy a new house in the near future after living in their current house for 40 years.  Right now they are in the process of figuring out how to get a real estate agent.  Unfortunately I can’t be of much help to them since I don’t live in the same city but I did offer to share all my writings on real estate agents.  The following is a list of posts we’ve done on real estate and agents with a brief description of each.

• Why you can’t trust your real estate agent when buying a house. This post covers the various conflicts of interest that real estate agents have which means they are not always on your side.   Various deceptive tactics that agents might use are listed.
• Why you can’t trust your real estate agent when selling a house. This post is similar to the first one except it involves selling a house.
• Even more reasons not to trust your real estate agent. After the first two posts, I got a lot of comments which gave some ideas for more reasons.
• Real Estate agents – the other side of the coin. Mr. Cheap does a good job explaining the details of why the financial goals of an agent are not the same as the house buyer or selling (in spite of what the agent tells you).
• House wars.  This posts takes a look at the difference between market value and asking price.  The important thing is to look at lots of houses and what they sell for and know the market.

The next series of posts were written by a first-time home buyer who explains all the various steps she went through:

• First steps and pre-approved mortgages. Budgeting, pre-approved mortgages.
• Down payments and financing. This also explains different types of mortgages.
• Choosing a realtor.  Some good ideas about how to find an agent and what to expect.
• What to buy.  This post is more specific to the author’s situation but has some good suggestions about how to figure out what kind of house to look for.
• The search.  Experiences at various open houses.
• Week one with an agent.  More houses!
• A close call.  They almost put in a bid on the house.
• House purchase.  After a long search, they bought a house.
• Closing costs.  Some costs involved with closing.  Keep in mind that the new land transfer tax only applies to Toronto.

That’s it!  Good luck with the house hunting!