Three reasons you should have a realtor to guide you during the process.
When driving around Jacksonville or the surrounding areas, it’s hard not to notice all of the new communities and newly constructed homes in the area. For many, being able to select the features they feel are most important for their new home gives them the feeling that they’ve “made it,” and rightfully so. In my experience as a realtor, people will often equate buying a brand new house to buying a new car – we wouldn’t take another car salesman to a car dealership with us to purchase a new vehicle, so why should we do so when buying a house that was built with our own needs and wants in mind? The bottomline is that you need someone on your side when purchasing a home, even one that’s brand new and built for you. The most important thing you can do on your first visit is to bring or register your own trusted realtor.
Quality may vary from builder to builder.
Unlike home construction, humans working collaboratively with robots has greatly changed how cars are built in the past decade and as a result, production time has dropped without sacrificing precision and consistency. For consumers, this means that when buying a brand new vehicle, we can expect a level of predictable quality. With new home construction, we are years away from seeing robots working collaboratively with humans for new home builds, which leaves us with the opportunity for human error, especially since it is within the builder’s best interest to keep their costs low.
What does this mean for buyers? Simply, that no matter what builder you decide to go with, there is a chance that your new home may have imperfections, and that if so, an experienced realtor can help find and negotiate any repairs that need to take place – before you move in so that you’re not stuck living with subpar work – literally. You can also expect that if a builder you’re interested in truly has a bad reputation that your realtor will try to steer you away from using that particular company.
Your realtor will help guide you through the process – and help you find the right financing for you.
Not only with the realtor be there for you to help you choose a layout for your home, the construction and inspection of your home, and finally, closing, but you can also expect that your realtor will help you decide if the builder’s recommended lender is the right choice for your situation or if you should go with another lender. Before you sign on the line, your realtor will also review your contract to ensure that you’re equally protected if something does fall through, and can also negotiate extra upgrades.
A builder’s agent is loyal… to the builder.
If you don’t register or bring your own realtor to the first visit, you may get stuck working with the builder’s own agent, and their objective will not be to get you the best deal on your new home. Rather, they will have the builder’s best interest in mind and their objective will be to get the highest price for the home as possible. The builder must pay a commission on the sale of the home to a realtor – they can either pay your realtor or they can pay their own agent. Bringing your own realtor that you trust and is loyal to you ensures that you will get the most value for your money, and will also eliminate hassle and frustration.
Allison Rodrigues is the owner and broker of Bold City Real Estate. She is passionate about her hometown of Jacksonville, Florida but helps both buyers and sellers in most areas of Northeast Florida. Her background in real estate law made the transition to selling homes an easy one and she prides herself on being available, adaptable, and transparent with her clients. She can be reached at 904-210-8387 or by email at Allison@BoldCityLife.com.