COMMON MISTAKES REAL ESTATE AGENTS MAKE

New real estate professionals at the beginning of their career are packed with excitement, and eagerness to find out their unlimited earnings potential. What many don’t realize is that the things they are doing (or don’t do) will have an impression on their performance. When buying a home, you’ll sign the California real estate purchase contract. Mistakes made on this contract by your realtor can cost you millions of dollars. Izabella Lipetski is going to show you ways to avoid them. The effective and successful real estate agent is not only an invention of their good decisions but also shaped by the capacity to avoid bad decisions. Real estate agents commonly make some mistakes. They should avoid that mistakes to become a professional estate agent.

CONSISTENTLY INCONSISTENT WITH PROSPECTING & LEAD GENERATION

Sales is a full sport and that we need to be contacting as many prospects every day of our career to be able to stop the ups and downs in our listings, sales, and income. Blocking a selected time, a day in our schedule for lead generation and searching for new clients will keep the listing, sales, and income funnel consistently full and avoid those up and downs that are common in our industry.

NOT QUALIFYING OUR BUYERS AND SELLERS

Many agents are afraid, shy, or not eager to qualify their client in fear of offending them or being too forward but all top agents have taken the time and measured the motivation and timing of just about every buyer and seller they work with and made priority consistent with their response. Which does save not only the agent but also the client time and energy.

OVERPRICING LISTINGS

Several agents listing properties at any price and we know this is true because nationally 24% of all listings expire due to overpricing. Many agents aren’t able to control the seller and their feelings about pricing their home.

NOT PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE ESCROW DAY

This is often in paragraph 1C. Once you get your offer, it might say something like “30-day escrow.” That sounds great because you like to maneuver. Well, if that 30 day ends on a Saturday, then the contract says it’ll get pushed back to the following business day. And if Monday may be a holiday, guess what? Contractually, you’re set to shut on Tuesday. Now, it is not a big deal, but if you’re buying and selling and days matter, it could be a very big deal. So be clear. You must realize when the close of escrow is for your transaction.

INSPECTION CONTINGENCY

You will find this in paragraph 14B1. The inspection contingency is that the no 1 reason why houses fall out of escrow. So, you need to stay those as short as possible. The default in this contract is 17 days. That’s too long. I recommend shortening that period to 10 or 6 days. You can always give the customer more days if they have it. But if you give them 17, you cannot shorten that.

NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO PARAGRAPH 8B

Not paying attention to paragraph 8B is one of the biggest mistakes that real estate agents make, which is items included in the sale of your home. Now, you would possibly know that lighting fittings and things that are attached are included, but if they mark a few boxes during this paragraph, you will be selling your stove, your refrigerator, and your washer and dryer. In addition, remember that there are a few other things that are included, just like the fireplace screen and all curtains.

ALLOWING FOR AN REMARKABLY LOW INTEREST RATE IN PARAGRAPH 3D

The contract goes to inform you of the terms of the buyer’s loan. One of those terms says that the customer is to get a loan that won’t exceed a particular rate of interest. Well, if the buyer’s agent writes an unrealistically low number on an item, it could make the loan contingency unenforceable. So, I propose ensuring that the rate of interest stated maybe a little above the going rate or, pro-tip, write that the customer will accept the prevailing rate of interest, and confirm that your home doesn’t fall out of escrow because they cannot get some dreamy rate of interest.

ALLOWING YOU TO SELL YOUR HOME VACANT

This is in paragraph 9D. The error here is simple. The contract reads that the homes shall be brought vacant at the close of escrow. Some homes have a guest unit or an ADU. And if you have a tenant in those units, they have rights and you are not able to vacate their unit to sell it. Make sure you understand tenants’ rights. Make sure you have open communication with any tenants that might be on your property and make sure you are not guaranteeing something you cannot deliver.

NOT CHECKING PARAGRAPH 6

These are 5 blank lines that the buyer’s agent can put anything they need in. And if you miss it, you’ll be agreeing to something objectionable. Be careful that you simply understand everything that they put in paragraph 6.

COST THEIR CLIENTS IN PARAGRAPH 7A

Mistake agents make that cost their clients in paragraph 7A. This is called allocation of costs, and it’s extremely tricky because it’s at the very bottom of the page and is simple to miss. The checking of a box can obligate the vendor to buy things like termite clearance or a sewer septic certification, for instance. These are the kind of belongings you want to avoid. You do not want to write down a blank check just to open up escrow. So, make sure you understand what’s in the allocation of costs.

ALLOWING YOU TO ACCEPT LESS THAN A THREE PERCENT DEPOSIT

The mistake that agents make which will cost you thousands of dollars is allowing you to accept a 3 percent deposit to open up escrow. The deposit amount isn’t a law. You could accept, for instance, a 1000-dollar deposit from the customer. In any case, contingencies are removed, they could decide that they want to cancel the sale. The only thing that you simply may have recourse with is that one thousand dollars, which is simply not enough to stay them from walking from your escrow.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Those are some mistakes that real estate agents make and cost you millions of dollars. Izabella Lipetski can help you in every step. She is the top real estate agent in California and she is no doubt the perfect assistance you need in the whole process of buying and selling a home.