3 (of the many) Reasons to Have a Professional Realtor® on Your Side

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There are a lot of aspects of life where “do it yourself” makes sense. You probably know a number of people who are good at doing home repair projects themselves — maybe you’re one of them! There are a lot of people who can make restaurant-quality meals at home and avoid having to pay $50+ for a steak dinner. There are people who build their own cars, computers and all kinds of things!

In real estate, a lot of home buyers like to get started on the home search by themselves — that’s why real estate agents offer MLS home search tools online. The days of asking a Realtor® to look through a big, blue book of home listings are long gone and never coming back. So if you want to get started on your home search without our help, go for it. We have listings of homes for sale in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and throughout the Tri-Cities.

But I’d like to caution you against tackling an entire real estate transaction on your own. There’s more to it than finding a house you like online, and it’s not as easy as it looks on shows like Property Brothers, House Hunters, Fixer Upper and the others that air every day.

Now more than ever, you need an expert in your corner — someone who will guide you toward your dreams and help you negotiate all of the plot twists that might come up during even the simplest of transactions. Buying and/or selling a home isn’t something you want to D-I-Y. Let me offer just three of the many reasons you should have a real estate professional on your side:

It’s a Process

Many agents will tell you that buying a home is an 8-step process, and selling is an 11-step process. But a few years ago, the Orlando Regional Realtor® Association detailed what happens in a successful real estate transaction and guess what? They came up with 230 possible steps! Don’t you want someone who has been there before, someone who knows what these actions are, to ensure you achieve your dream?

Realtors Understand a Home’s True Value

Too many consumers get wrapped up in the home value estimates they find on Zillow and other sites. But no computer algorithm can understand a local market as well as an agent with his/her feet on the ground.

It’s so important to understand what a home is really worth and, if you’re selling, to make sure you price it correctly from day one. You’ll want a professional’s guidance to competitively and correctly price your home at the beginning of the selling process, or — if you’re buying — to make sure you’re not paying too much, or even offending the seller with a lowball offer.

Realtors are Skilled Negotiators

A Realtor® doesn’t just help with the original pricing of a home. We’re there if you need to renegotiate after the home inspection, and we’re there if you need to consider backing out after a troubled appraisal. Our negotiation skills can save our clients thousands of dollars. And we help keep deals together and moving forward until they close.

Final Thoughts

There are many more reasons to have a Realtor® on your side. We’re in the real estate trenches every day, and that experience helps all our clients deal with the stress of buying or selling. Go ahead and D-I-Y that bathroom repair if you’re able, but be careful when it comes to buying and selling real estate. This isn’t the best place to try to do it yourself. Let a professional guide you through the process and keep your head and heart at ease until everything’s signed and the transaction is complete. That’s what we’re here to do.

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About The Author
Cari McGee

My husband and I came to the Tri-Cities in 1994, and we thought it would be a temporary stop on our way to larger cities. He was a television sports anchor at the time, and we planned to go wherever the "next step up" took us. Twenty-plus years later, we're still here and we've loved every minute of it! We have two children now, and we've found the Tri-Cities area is a wonderful place to raise a family. It's a great place to do outdoorsy things -- I like to hike Badger Mountain or run along the river path. I also love reading ... by a cozy fire in the winter or a beautiful picture window in the summer (with the A/C on!). I've been a licensed Realtor since 2004. I earned my managing broker's license in 2016, which means I can run my own brokerage, or create a team of real estate agents and supervise them, which is exactly what I did when I formed the Cari McGee Real Estate Team in 2018! We have administrative and marketing personnel, as well as additional agents to serve you. I became a director of the Tri-Cities Association of Realtors Board of Directors in 2016, became Secretary/Treasurer of the organization, and was elected to Vice President in 2019. Want to talk about real estate? Click here to schedule a meeting with me!

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