How can a buyer find a home in Sequim? This is a loaded question, and I get some great questions from retirees around the United States who are searching for that perfect place to spend the rest of their lives. Thousands of people are doing online research on Sequim every month, and every single day, and this real estate blog was created for that very purpose. We now have over 2,200 articles on this Sequim real estate blog written to help answer all the questions buyers having been asking for over two decades. Buyers starting their research from far away often ask how to get started finding a home. It all starts with content-rich information online written by a local Sequim professional who is trustworthy. That’s what this blog is all about–helping buyers start with the one place they can trust to provide them with the best answers they will find anywhere. A reader by the name of Maribel asked a question about this blog and how it works. I thought I would share my answer with you today, because my answer is at the root of the answers that address buyers’ questions, like “How can a buyer find a home in Sequim?”
Thanks Maribel, the answer to your question could turn into a book. Actually, it did more than once. I’ve written several books on this subject and on the evolving world of marketing for real estate agents, including The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents, Real Estate From Bricks and Mortar to High Tech Virtuality, and books that share some insider secrets with buyers, like Sequim Real Estate for Buyers: Free eBook Updates Forever, The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home, Buying and Selling Real Estate in the Rain Shadow, and I have over 2,200 articles on this Sequim real estate blog.
I’ve been building websites since the Internet first went public back in 1994, and I’ve built as many as 100 websites and blogs since then. I didn’t build these in the role of a website developer or an Internet guru for hire. I built these myself (without hiring outside techs) to create resources for my own buyers with my own material. I invested a lot of money in hardware, software, servers, security, and my own education to do what I do now. It’s been a long and challenging road. Honestly, I don’t think most people comprehend what it has taken to put all these resources online for buyers. It know it looks easy, but believe me, it’s incredibly challenging and very hard work.
One big difference between me and most of my colleagues is that my business model puts my clients at the center of the Universe, and I serve their best interests first and always. While others give lip service to the same idea, I’m the only one in my market who has actually put my money and thousands of hours and decades to do exactly that. This massive Sequim real estate blog is proof of that, and yet this is just the tip of the iceberg. This means I have not put profit or bragging rights about the number of homes I sell above my clients’ best interests. Money is not my God. My calling is to serve my clients’ best interest, and that means a lot of hard work, like this real estate blog, which gives and gives and gives without any direct profits in return. And even though my site is the largest real estate blog of any individual broker on the entire Olympic Peninsula, and possibly all of the northwest, I have never permitted advertising, which would make me money but would annoy my clients. I also get requests constantly from aspiring writers or others seeking to increase their own Google juice by posting on my site or linking from it. I don’t accept guest posts. Why? Because once again, they are not in my buyers’ best interests.
One of the keys to what I’m doing is that everything about my business model from the beginning, everything about the content I post, everything about the navigation, everything about the videos, everything about the photos, everything about the books, and everything about how I market to buyers is all done with my clients’ at the center of every decision.
So this is the beginning of the answer to your question Maribel, but as you can see, there is much more. The rest of the story . . . as they say . . . is history.
“How can a buyer find a home?”
“Finding a home today is much more convenient than it was before the Internet. They key today is learning how to use the Internet efficiently to search for homes, to identify online sites that provide accurate listing information and good data and photos (and even virtual tours), and then knowing how to filter through all the homes quickly to identify your ideal home. The truth is, it takes practice to get good at using MLS sites, real estate blogs, and to be able to navigate the Internet resources that will best help you.”
“What are the best online MLS sites?”
“Online MLS (multiple listing service) sites used to be local, but now there are many nationally syndicated MLS sites intended to help buyers anywhere in the U.S. find their ideal home, including the popular Zillow site, Realtor.com, Trulia, and many others. There’s nothing wrong with using Zillow, for example, for it’s helpful information, but it is a very good idea to also find an MLS site specifically for the local real estate market you are searching since that site will specialize in obtaining the information from the source data–the listing agents themselves. That will increase accuracy and information regarding availability as well as the local buyers’ agents you may want to contact.”
“How can I investigate my buyer’s agent?”
“The Internet has made it easy to investigate real estate agents and identify the one you believe is best qualified to help you. But you need to know how to search online. Search for buyer’s agent and include the city or town in the search. You can leave out the apostrophe as the search engines don’t recognize them. Quotes around a search term will help narrow it down. Once you locate a buyers agent in the locale, begin searching that person’s name with quotes. They should have a full profile for you to read as well as articles they’ve posted, photos and perhaps videos. Review their years of experience and reputation, and compare agents so you can choose the one you feel is best for you. Beware, simple statistics, like the most sales, say very little about character, integrity, and loyalty to you.”
Last Updated on December 16, 2019 by Chuck Marunde
