There are currently more than a million Realtors in the United States. That’s the same number of people living in Jacksonville and the beaches! It’s a huge number, and it leaves clients wondering how on Earth to choose one.

Most people know now that they can’t safely complete a transaction without a real estate professional because of the sheer number of tedious, legal hoops there are to jump through. But they don’t have any clue how to audit a Realtor, and so often they end up choosing a friend or family member so that they will “get the commission” (which might be the worst thing they could do!).

How does Round Table Realty choose agents?

Here at Round Table Realty, we’re obviously very picky. Our method for choosing our own agents always

…

Hundreds of thousands of people go to Zillow and similar websites every day to search for houses. Because Zillow gets all its information on homes for sale directly from the MLS (the same site used by Realtors), there’s no reason to think you need a Realtor to search for a home. Right?!

Partially right. 

"When Zillow rolled out the feature back in 2006, it had an error rate of 14%. When NerdWallet last reviewed Zestimates in 2015, they had a national median error rate of 8%
Recently, Zillow says the margin of error is 4.3% nationwide. That means half of Zestimates were within 4.3% of the final selling price, and half were off by more than 4.3%."
-NerdWallet

True, 4.3% doesn't seem like a lot. For a $180,000 house, the wrong values could be

…

 You’re ready to buy a new home, sell your old one, or both. You know a Realtor. You think you know your way around a Real Estate Transaction. It’s go-time!!!

But like Mark Carroll from Round Table Realty said, “Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know.”

There isn’t a Realtor on Earth who hasn’t had an “oops” during a transaction. Every single sale is different in Real Estate and you can’t expect a human being to be perfect. But if you can avoid some of the more common pitfalls by knowing when it might be time to find another Realtor, you could save yourself a lot of headache.

It might be time to fire your Realtor if:

1. ...communication is lacking. If your phone calls and texts aren’t returned within the hour, it’s time to say

…

Traditionally speaking, a Real Estate team shares everything. That means two agents (or more) share the work and the profits of all transactions right down the middle. Often times one is in charge of buyers and the other sellers. The team set-up inspires many agents to do better and be better, but it can also create big-time resentment (if one perceives the other is doing less work or making more money). When Keith and Howard started Round Table Realty in 2010, they weren’t too keen on hiring Realtor teams.

“I know we’re a team, but we didn’t do things like the other teams we saw in the business. We didn’t keep score with each other,” Keith said. “We just decided that we would help each other be better because we wanted to do Real Estate that

…

People do it every year. They sell their homes without a Realtor (for sale by owner). And frankly, many of them do it successfully and without regret.

With the advent of the Internet, almost everyone now has “Google Doctorate” in something. They read about a subject just long enough to feel competent. You might have noticed this by the amount of For Sale By Owner signs now perched outside of homes in many neighborhoods. Many of you have learned you can get more money by paying less in commissions if you sell your homes without a Realtor. Why wouldn’t you go FSBO?

We’ll tell you why - Traffic!

The first and most obvious reason is that selling a home yourself means your home isn’t listed in the MLS (Multiple Listings Service) database. Public

…

When Round Table Realty SuperAgent Tracy Lohse moved to Texas for her husband’s job in 2017, the brokers were crushed! Keith and Howard loved having Tracy at The Table, but because family always comes first around here, they understood. So, in 2018 when Tracy’s husband was transferred back to Jacksonville, you can imagine the party that started around here…

Tracy is the true definition of “People before property.” Her work ethic for the clients she serves is endless. Just recently, Tracy was put in touch with Frances by a mutual friend. Frances is a single mom of 3 that needed her help. The only problem was - Frances lives in Texas!

You see, Frances bought a house in Jacksonville years back and rented it out as an investment. When things around the

…

You can spend a weekend on the couch watching HGTV and take notes on home trends. Chip and Joanna or those Property Brothers are a great resource, but unless you are a professional carpet-straightener with an all-in investment of $800,000, there's a good chance you won't ever achieve those levels of trend-greatness. 

 

In better news, having a Realtor on your side will actually give you a tremendous advantage. Realtors are going in and out of houses all day every day. They're watching trends in real time. So while the following trend tips can help, your specific home might call for different trends. First and foremost, find a Realtor who can tell you if this list applies to your home...

Trend #1 -  Backsplash Take a chance on your…

In a case filed this year against one of New York's most prestigious Real Estate companies, Houlihan Lawrence, plaintiffs are arguing that the brokerage duped them into signing dual agency forms. Dual agency is when a Real Estate agent can represent both the buyer and the seller in a single transaction, which means that neither party has the benefit of full-disclosure, loyalty, or confidentiality. The agent is working for the deal, not for the people involved. The law in New York states that both the buyer and seller must be fully informed if a Real Estate agent is acting as a dual agent. While the case is still pending and it's possible the plaintiffs did sign documentation that their agent was acting a dual agent, it doesn't mean they understood the

…

"Just up the street from me there is a beautiful, 5 bedroom/4 bathroom home with lots of space and a beautiful layout. But I was shocked when I actually walked through the home. There were so many thing I would have changed to help the home show better. Sometimes a listing agent doesn't explain the importance of a few basic upgrades and house-cleaning issues to the homeowner prior to listing a home, and sometimes a homeowner just doesn't listen because they believe they know better than the agent. At this point that home has been on the market over 100 days..."
-An RTR Agent

 

We see it happen more than we'd like - beautiful homes sitting on the market because an agent didn't do their job or a homeowner is afraid to take their agent's advice.…

What's the first thing buyers look for when they're searching for a new home?
Home prices.

It's the most obvious answer because most of us have a budget we must keep our monthly expenses under. While buyers are typically accurate with what they can afford, they miss the mark when it comes to understanding how much a home actually costs. They leave out figures like taxes, which are often applied to their monthly payments. They leave out home owners' insurance and home owners' association fees, also billed monthly. And they don't take into consideration the ongoing maintenance costs that come with owning a home (often because they were previously renting and weren't responsible for those fees!).

When you begin your home search, get in touch with a…