10 December 2020 - Whether it’s your first home purchase or you’ve bought residences before, the procedures and regulations involved in home-buying can be truly daunting. A major acquisition like a new flat can affect your life in lots of ways for many years if not decades to come. That’s why it is so important to have a licensed and experienced professional estate agent by your side to help guide you from start to finish.
But how does enlisting the services of a qualified estate agent really benefit you?
The following outlines the many ways teaming up with an industry professional can help assure that your next home purchase is a success.
Because so much money is involved with the purchase of a residence, it is vitally important to make sure that no fraud or other shady dealings occur during any step of the home buying process. With this in mind, all real estate agents in Hong Kong must be certified by the Hong Kong Estate Agents Authority before they are allowed to legally work in the industry. Certification comes only after a thorough personal investigation and the passing of a comprehensive examination. Estate practitioners in the territory are held to the highest of industry standards, so they are not only experts about real estate but they are also trustworthy individuals who will always put the buyers’ interests first and engage only in legitimate, trustworthy practices.
Pricing and Value Experts
They are constantly involved in evaluating the very latest home prices in various districts every day, that’s why real estate agents have an excellent ability to walk into a unit and immediately get an accurate estimate of the purchase price. They are also savvy in terms of advising their clients about whether or not a unit is over or under-valued. This is indispensable knowledge that most home buyers really need to know.
Your Trusted Representative
Anyone can go out on their own and search for a home they think they like and then make a purchase. But most people don’t have even a fraction of the information and resources available about the best new homes on the market that a real estate agent can provide. Moreover, most don’t have the time or energy to search for their ideal dwelling with all the necessary detailed attributes. That’s why teaming up with a real estate agent can be so important. They have the wherewithal to serve as your eyes, ears and feet to ensure that you ultimately end up with your absolute dream property.
Expert Quality Evaluator
The home of your dreams may have hidden problems that may come back to haunt you after you’ve moved in. For this reason, a qualified estate agent can be of great help in carrying out a detailed inspection to make sure everything is ok. And, if indeed some repair, installation or remodeling work is required, they will know the most trustworthy professionals to call for assistance.
Resource Rich and Ready
Of course, anyone can find a flat for sale on the internet. But in many cases, sellers want to keep confidential the fact that they putting their home on the market. These are the potentially great units a real estate agent will have access to. Compared to what a regular individual might be able to find, an agent will always have countless more and varied options for you to consider located in the districts you most want to live.
Saved from Drowning in Documentation
Anyone who has ever purchased a property knows all too well just how complex things can get when it comes to proper documentation and regulations. A real estate agent pro can really help in this area. They deal with proper procedures and documents all the time and will know exactly what you need, who to pay, and where to sign. They can make the entire process much less burdensome.
Got Any Special Requests?
Often people will have requirements that go beyond just the usual, bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom in their home. For example, many individuals often need to work from home and will perhaps want a place that could be converted into a suitable office. Maybe there is an aspiring musician in the family and they’d like an area that could be set aside as a nifty practice studio. Real estate agents get requests like this all the time and they will be able to recall an ideal unit that they’ve shown before. Online photos of a flat for sale may not properly show those special areas that you are looking for.
Nicer Negotiations
Face-to-face negotiations with a person wishing to sell a home can often be awkward and even contentious. This can lead to misunderstandings and anger that might ruin a perfectly good deal in the making. Having a real estate agent acting as a go-between helps keep things on a more neutral footing, allowing both buyer and seller express their wishes without any unnecessary emotion and rancor. Agents are highly experienced at maintaining their cool, which could really make all the difference between a successful or failed negotiation.
Get a Clean Closing
The closing stage of buying a home can at times present a host of unexpected pitfalls from title matters to bank financing hold ups and a lot more in between. Real estate agents are closely involved in many closings and have probably seen it all, so he or she will know exactly what you need to do and need to avoid to ensure that everything runs smooth and hassle-free.
OKAY.com Expertise
OKAY.com is home to some of the finest professional real estate agents in Hong Kong. Feel free to join forces with one of them when you decide to go ahead with buying a property.