Finance

Fast-talking salespeople might seem impressive at first glance, but they’re not always the best choice. When it comes to hiring a real estate agent, the smart shopper looks for one that’s honest, outgoing and comes with good reviews from past customers. Integrity should also be a high priority, as should an ability to communicate well.

Having a good rapport with the person you’re looking to hire to either buy or sell a home is vital. This agent must be a good listener for the transaction to go smoothly. But, remember, you must be a good listener, too.

Successfully buying or selling a home is a pursuit of communication. On your part, it’s very important whether you’re buying or selling that you feel comfortable enough with the agent to share your hopes, desires and what you’d be willing to settle for. On the listening end, you must get clear, and honest, feedback from the agent about what is feasible. If your expectations are reasonable and your agent’s don’t sound that way, there’s a disconnect somewhere.

If you’re selling a home, your agent must understand what you need and want to get out of a home. These can be two very different numbers, but in some markets the “want” can be very possible. You must also feel comfortable enough to clearly explain any flaws with the home and what, if anything, you can do prior to the sale to remedy one.

When dealing with an honest agent, you should receive good feedback about your expectations. This can include advice on what can be done to attain the desired price, what you can expect during the sales process and a clear and easy to understand explanation of any contracts. If you don’t get these things, be a little wary. Also, if your real estate agent promises you the sun and the stars, ask questions. The person might be promising you the world to get you to sign a contract. A reputable agent will not do this.

On the buying end, your budget, desires for the home and the area you’d like to live in must be made very clear. If you want a three bedroom and the agent keeps showing you two bedroom places, there’s a problem in communication. The lack of understanding is not only a waste of your time; it’s a waste of the agent’s. Be certain to list out minimum requirements about what you’d like to buy; otherwise, you’ll both be spinning your wheels.

Buying or selling a house can be a great experience if a good real estate agent is involved. This person will act as a liaison between you and others in the business dealing and should help take some of the burdens off you. If he or she doesn’t, you haven’t found a good agent.

When looking for the right agent, check out different offices and go with a person you feel comfortable talking with, one who is state licensed and has a good track record with past clients. It’s more than okay to interview a few. If communication and trust are present, along with the right credentials, you’ve found a keeper.

Remember, buying or selling a home is a complex process. Make sure the real estate agent you hire is out to serve you during the deal.

Will the internet do to real estate agents what it’s done to travel agents? That question has incited fear among some in the real estate world. The recent launch of a do-it-yourself real estate website by one of the founders of expedia.com has given new urgency to the discussion. Yet the fact remains that we are well into the maturity of the ecommerce age, with no end to the real estate agency industry in site. Are real estate agents finally out of the internet-competition woods?

What the Web Has Done to Travel Agents

In case you’re not familiar with the effect the internet has had on the consumer travel agent industry, just pay a visit to your local travel agency. Very likely, you’ll find either a vacant storefront or another business. It is widely believed that the internet—in particular, do-it-yourself travel websites such as expedia, travelocity, orbitz, and priceline—has proven more competition than most travel agents could bear. How were the websites able to beat the travel agents? There were arguably two big factors:



Cost. Cost savings is the most commonly cited factor in the decline of the consumer travel agency industry. This was one case where “cutting out the middle man” wasn’t just a slogan. When the travel agent no longer had to be paid, a trip usually got that much cheaper. But perhaps the biggest challenge to travel agents wasn’t the cost savings to consumers, but to the airlines. The airlines aggressively pushed the new travel websites, cutting agents’ commissions at the same time. It is widely believed that the airlines saw they could get more money selling through the internet than through agents.



Knowledge. Travel agents had sold themselves to customers largely on the basis of their knowledge of travel planning and the locales to which they sold trips, and their ability to find the lowest airfares and best-value hotel rooms. Yet the internet put a great deal of that knowledge at people’s fingertips. For instance, airlines’ published fares—and even cut-rate “consolidator” fares—were now just a web search away. Ditto for hotel rates, travelers’ reports, local profiles, and State Department advisories.



Real Estate Agents and the Web: Better Outlook?

The commercial mass-market world wide web is now over 10 years old, and unlike travel agents, real estate agents are still going strong. In fact, the last few years have seen the ranks of real estate agents swell with thousands of people who found the field not only exciting but potentially lucrative. Could it be that there are problems with the comparison between travel agents and real estate agents?

Cost. At first, cost would seem to be a more important factor for real estate agents than travel agents, given how much money is involved. Yet money weighs in favor of real estate agents as well as against them. Both buyers and sellers stand to make more money if represented by real estate agents, who can puff up or negotiate down the price of a property. Knowledge. Consumers have shown themselves quite willing to do their own research for travel plans. The knowledge needed to handle real estate transactions is arguably much more daunting. Failing to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s can lead to quite a real estate headache, even legal or tax problems. Meanwhile, the seller in the real estate market is usually an individual person; in the travel industry, the seller usually is a monolithic corporate giant like Delta or Disney. For the average individual, “branching out” into real estate by building up a wealth of knowledge on the subject may not repay the investment. Fun. Ultimately, planning your own travel can be fun: you learn about different places and get to imagine what each experience would be like. It’s hard to see how selling or buying a house is fun in the same way. Sure, there are the exciting expectations for the future after the sale has closed. But the buyer and seller are still involved enough in the process even with a real estate agent that they aren’t missing anything but the stress.

Looking to the Future of Real Estate and the Web

What will the future hold for real estate agents? The new website, zillow.com, founded by one of the founders of the travel website expedia.com, may point the way. Despite all the travel agent vs. real estate agent comparisons the site excited, it does not actually allow visitors to buy or sell real estate. At least for the moment, then, it does not affect real estate agents on the important issue of costs.

Yet zillow.com may pose a real challenge to real estate agents in the area of knowledge. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, the site aims to be for real estate what Kelley Blue Book is for automobiles: an easy way to find out the value of a property. Simply type in the address, and you get a number—even if the property is not on the market.

To be sure, many real estate agents quoted in the news scoffed at the machine-generated property values provided by the site. But the knowledge the internet offers buyers and sellers—knowledge once only available from real estate agents–will likely get better in the future. Will more knowledgeable buyers and sellers choose to go it alone? Will they just demand a better deal from real estate agents? Or will agents be able to justify their current services and fees?

One thing’s likely: how real estate agents market themselves is going to get quite a bit more complicated.

If you are looking for some hot, new Mallorca properties, then you should know that you have almost unlimited choices. There are plenty of real estate agencies that offer their services online, presenting you with some of the most incredible Mallorca properties, varying from simple studio apartments to luxurious villas, depending on your personal budget.

Before you start your hunt for properties for sale Mallorca, you should perform an extensive research and find out what the latest trends on the market truly are. Discover what methods real estate agencies use to attract potential customers and make sure that you are aware of them all. You do not have to act like Sherlock Homes but you have to gather a few clues before being certain that the company you have chosen is completely reliable and prestigious. As there are numerous websites that have listed properties for sale Mallorca, you should have no problem comparing and seeing the differences between the various services they provide. You will form an idea about the going rate for diverse properties and take a much more informed decision in the end.

Mallorca properties are all of a high quality, but we all know that there is no garden without its weeds, so there are a couple of things that you should watch out for if you intend to purchase some properties for sale Mallorca. First of all, you should make sure that the properties for sale Mallorca are sound from a structural point of view. You can use the information provided by surveys, helping you to get a general idea upon how Spanish properties are perceived. With the help of the data obtained, not only you can compare between several types of properties but you can also draw some pretty important conclusions on your own, resulting in you picking out one of the finest Mallorca properties.

Another good and helpful idea is to ask your legal adviser to carry out conveyance to make sure that there are no potential problems when it comes to the ownership of the properties for sale Mallorca and, most important, to make sure that there are absolutely no debts related to them.

The location is always a crucial element that eventually leads to the success or to the complete failure of buying or selling a property, so that is why you have to check whether the chosen property is in close proximity to all of the facilities you might need to enjoy a decent living. So check out the schools, public transport and amenities in the local area.

Also, you might want to pay increased attention to the utilities you are provided with. Do not consider them a caprice as you will soon discover how much you need them. If you are an important businessman or just a person who needs a regular Internet connection in order to keep in touch with potential clients and resolve other complementary work tasks, then it certainly would be difficult not to have Internet access at your Mallorca properties. This is why you have to keep yourself far away from remote areas.