Free Summerville, S.C Real Estate Agent Commissions: They’re Logical

Sooner or later, all children need to be warned about the fallacy of something for nothing. It’s an important lesson and a milestone. Very little ones are too young to be exposed to the idea that when they grow up, they should automatically examine the motives behind anything that seems to be offered for free. Until then, it’s one of the joys of parenthood to enjoy shielding the innocence of their kids for as long as possible. But sooner or later, for their own good, the basic lesson from the adult world has to be learned: outside the family, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

That could be why first time home buyers can be forgiven for having a degree of skepticism when they learn that the Summerville real estate agent who is offering to help them is willing to do so at no cost to them!

Hold it, they automatically think; where’s the catch?

It only sounds like “something for nothing.” When we make that offer, we Summerville real estate agents aren’t, in fact, giving away our professional services as a charitable enterprise. The work we do (and the expenses we encounter in the course of doing it) will be compensated, but the bill will be presented elsewhere. It’s only sort of like a free lunch. The way it works is not just straightforward—it’s also logical.

When homeowners decide to sell Summerville homes, the popular choice is to call upon the resources of a licensed Summerville agent. The commission for doing so (often 5% or 6% of the sale price) is considered when arriving at the asking price—and since most of the other homes listed for sale have made similar arrangements, that amount should not put the property at a competitive disadvantage. Something like nine out of ten homeowners make that same decision, if for no other reason than the powerful marketing resources that can then go into the sales effort.

On the other side of the transaction-to-be, potential buyers can be offered the professional assistance of a real estate agent at no cost because of the traditional practice in the industry—the agreement between buying and selling brokerages to share in the selling agent’s commission. It’s a bit like what you run into when you use some cities’ toll bridges, where a toll equal to the value of two passages is charged coming into the city, but none as you leave. It’s doubly efficient that way.

In fact, I suspect the efficiency argument in American real estate practice isn’t the entire reason that this ancient system developed. Since a seller hopes to reap the proceeds of the sale, it’s fair to assume that he or she is the party who is better able to justify an expense—especially if it will only be paid when a successful sale is concluded. For the buyer, receiving the benefits of a professional’s services with no bill presented. Come to think of it—it does seem a little bit like free lunch, doesn’t it?

Summerville listings are usually less numerous this time of year—which makes it an attractive time for sellers to put their homes up for sale. If you are thinking of selling or buying, there’s less competition than will be the case come springtime—ample reason to give me a call!

Two Ways It’s Getting Easier to Buy a House in Summerville, SC

Buying a house should be getting easier.

For most people who are looking into buying a house in Summerville for the first time, the two greatest obstacles appear to be financial, and—for lack of a better word—emotional.

Let’s deal with the second barrier right off the bat. Emotional may not be an apt adjective because most of the emotions that accompany the process of buying a house are positive. The potential of joining your Summerville friends as a homeowner is certainly a positive goal. Accompanying your chosen Summerville Realtor® on house-hunting tours in search of your dream house takes energy—but they are also some of the most interesting shopping trips imaginable. And the pride of ownership that comes with unlocking your own front door for the first time is a truly satisfaction-producing moment.

Stacked up against all those positives is one strong negative for first-time buyers: the instinctive impulse to avoid the unknown. The process of buying a house is full of legal, technical and procedural details that can appear to be all but impenetrable to those who’ve never weathered them before. That makes it understandable why you’d want to put off tackling the whole can of worms—especially since buying a house is such a weighty transaction.

The reason this first barrier is ultimately overcome is probably also why nearly 90% of U.S. residential real estate transactions involve a real estate professional. It doesn’t take long before most future buyers learn that they can enlist the services of a professional like me to act on their behalf…for free! With a Summerville Realtor to guide and advise on all aspects of buying a house in Summerville, the technicality obstacle disappears. Veteran homeowners don’t give it a second thought.

Which leaves that other barrier: the financial one.

But here, too, buying a house should have gotten somewhat easier. Not because it’s any easier to make money—and not because having enough of the green stuff isn’t still a prerequisite to getting a front door key of your own—but because there are so many readily accessible ways to track and control personal finances. Keeping up with household expenses once meant conscientiously stacking incoming bills and mailing out payments at the end of the month—then having to wait for the bank statement to arrive to verify household balances.

Today all that information can handled online—and any number of personal finance software solutions like Quicken, Microsoft Money, and iCash make it easy to track and schedule just about everything. That means it’s a simple matter to keep on top of all the income and expense flows as their deadlines come and go month-by-month. This doesn’t make any expenses disappear, but it does make it much less likely that due dates will be accidentally overlooked—or that credit score damage will result. It also makes it a whole lot easier to project income and expenses into the future—and to plot a savings trajectory that produces the down payment you need when you need it.

Buying a house in Summerville becomes a less daunting prospect when your financial picture is organized for clarity—and when your house-hunting team includes an agent with wide local experience and personal knowledge of the current Summerville offerings. That’s me!