Before graduating from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri; I’d had my mind set on my career path which was in real estate! I decided after breaking multiple school and conference football kicking records, to hang up the cleats and focus on handing over keys to new home buyers and game-plan with sellers! In my first full year of working in real estate post graduation; In 2023, I successfully closed on 18 sides totaling $5,355,500 while working with multiple first time home buyers!
As a young home buyer, it might seem overwhelming as you’re given the task to find a real estate agent, mortgage lender, insurance agent, signing paperwork, dealing with the title company, thinking about a downpayment and much more! Of course, while you’re thinking of all these factors, you’re coming up with numerous questions. This is why picking a qualified agent who thoroughly understands and relates to young and first-time home buyers is so critical! When I refer to the words “qualified agent”, I’m not just referring to the age of an agent, I’m referring to experience. Whether 24 years old or 85 years old, selecting an agent who’s completed numerous sales with a similar scenario as yourself; An agent that has numerous reviews from clients about their performance throughout the process; And an agent who can confidently answer your question with clarity, is of the upmost importance.
Communication is one of the strongest traits an agent should have! Time is always of the essence, the clock doesn’t stop moving and there’s multiple parties involved in each transaction that need to stay informed, as-well as yourself, the buyer! If transparent communication isn’t there, it could result in a delayed closing, missed deadlines and losing your earnest money to the seller’s which can be thousands of dollars LOST! In a standard transaction, there can be 5+ other parties that need to know what’s going on at all times and those parties include the title company processor and closer, mortgage lender and underwriter, as-well as the seller’s agent! Other parties can including the inspectors, appraisers, survey companies…and many more! With poor communication, it can be easy for one of the parties to miss important information which could negatively hurt your chances of successfully purchasing your first home! This is why one of the most important factors of selecting a Realtor® needs to be their communication skills!
Selecting an agent with knowledge on the area you’re considering is critical as this is where you’ll be spending the next many years of your life! As a Realtor®, I put a very heavy emphasis on local market knowledge so I can provide my clients with the best resources, knowledge and important information to help guide them through their home buying process! I’m personally a very big fan of charts and graphs so I can show my clients from a visual standpoint where the market is been trending and where it could go from here. Attached to this article bellow, you’ll find a chart referencing where the current trends are for the 5-county core market combined which includes St. Louis County, City of St. Louis, St. Charles County, Jefferson County and Franklin County.
As a 24 year old professional real estate agent, that has successfully closed over 30 transactions totaling $7,600,000+ in the last rolling 12-months ending July 2023, I’ve had the privilege of represented numerous young families and first-time home buyers. I’ve seen multiple different situations and acted swiftly to provide solutions to make sure at the end of the day, you can sign on the dotted line and get keys in your hands on closing day! Communication, market knowledge, in-field experience and connections to other professional vendors outside of real estate are some of the most vital assets to look into when selecting a REALTOR® to work with! I would invite you to follow my Facebook pages, “Tim Branneky, Realtor” to follow along with updates on what’s happening in today’s real estate market! Please subscribe to the St. Louis Real Estate News platform as this is where you’ll find more industry leading news and updates!
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