Real Estate Information

http://www.vancouversun.com/Building+collapses+onto+major+street+downtown+Edmonton/3264199/story.html

It's a magical moment for every buyer - the day you take possession of your new home. You have spent the last several months shopping for the home with your Realtor, shopping different mortgage rates and carefully doing all the legal paperwork and taking care of all the details involved to finally take you to this day - Possession Day!

As you walk up to the front door you feel like you should have a giant pair of scissors to cut a bright red ribbon on your new home. This is how many homebuyers feel and then ... the big letdown ... THEY DIDN'T CLEAN IT! Every Realtor has had a possession day like this - you walk into the house and it's dirty.

There are things left behind, that old desk they couldn't fit up the stairs, the piles wood scraps under the deck, the dog run so full you wonder how Rover even fit in there in the first place. As I write this my sister just took possession of her new home in Calgary. It wasn't quite as bad as this but it wasn't good either. Every buyer, especially first timers, needs to keep in mind that cleanliness is a subjective measure - what's clean to you isn't necessarily clean to the sellers of your home. So keep possession day as magical as you can but bring a bottle of Mr. Clean and some rags too. Chances are you'll need them.

I have been asked before whether there is any difference in Realtors - meaning Realtors are all the same. Having spent some time in the business I can tell you that there are some huge differences between agents and it's not necessarily in the areas you might think of like marketing. There are some very simple service principles that not every Realtor follows. Calling me back when I'm trying to set up an appointment to show one of your listings to me is a simple task but one that inevitably is missed by some agents. The other day I went to show 10 condos to a prequalified out of town buyer. These people were in town to buy a place. Out of the 10 condos we wanted to have a look at, 2 of the Realtors never returned my call, which means I didn't show them, which means my out of town buyer never had a chance to decide if it was the right place for them. Now you might think only 2 didn't call you back - that's not so bad but I wonder what their clients would think if they had an opportunity to possibly sell their home and they couldn't find the time to return a phone call.