A buyer has so many options these days to search for and buy real estate.
- Internet, this is the number one search source, 84% of buyers start here.
- Magazines (mostly paid advertising in real estate magazines)
- Cable TV (and satellite)
- Newspapers (and the all classified papers)
- Infomercials
- Bank & Mortgage Company ads, refinance for zero closing costs
- Direct Mail
- Free trips to spend a few days at the new resort that is part of the new “ultra complex” offering golf, boating, green space, hunting, hiking, club house, shopping…spend three days viewing your new lifestyle. Watch out here. You could end up paying a hefty premium.
- Flat rate realty services
- Menu Real estate services, pick how much or how little service you want and advertising after the initial ad that is optional too, and pay first
- MLS, searches for FSBO’s, Realtors, Brokers, Auctions
- IDX search sites
- Vacant land, these are listed
- Investment properties, listed in multiple formats
- Residential, private sights and multiple formats too.
- Commercial, more selective and less public because the audience is not as big.
- Buyer’s Agents and then the certified Buyer’s Broker
- No money down…the old land contract with a new name, but pay a lot of interest
- Rent to own (somebody makes a huge profit here, and it’s not you)
- Money back at close to buy furniture or that new car to put in the garage.
- The traditional Realtor and brokerage
This is just a few options. I could fill the page with hybrids. With all of this, clearly the rule is caveat emptor, or buyer beware. Just as these many sources give a buyer many more options, a buyer has that many more ways to end up getting conned or paying to much for a property, or even worse, getting in big legal trouble.
Another case for retaining the services of a professional Realtor?
Last Updated on September 20, 2019 by Chuck Marunde
