There are numerous pros and cons to working with or without an agent when you’re trying to buy or sell a home. The key factor here is that agents are professionals. You’re most likely putting yourself at a disadvantage if you’re not also a real estate professional and you’re not knowledgeable when it comes to the real estate market.
You might save yourself in the neighborhood of 8% in commissions if you take the “for sale by owner” approach, but you’ll work hard for those savings. You’re not just showing your home to prospective buyers. You’ll be marketing it and negotiating with those buyers, and you’ll be responsible for drafting and handling all associated paperwork without error. Consumer Reports warns that it’s not an undertaking for the faint of heart. A real estate agent, as defined by Cambridge Dictionary, is a person whose business is to arrange the selling or renting of houses, land, offices, or buildings for their owners. While that is a technically accurate definition of a real estate agent, it doesn’t give an accurate description of what a real estate agent does every day.
A real estate agent maintains expertise with working with real estate transactions through continuing education and working with clients on a day to day basis. An experienced agent knows what to say and what to do to get things in order. As an expert at selling and buying homes they know how to maneuver around negotiations in order to get their client to the closing finish line.
Agents keep up on market trends and are familiar with the types of neighborhoods that are of interest to their clients. Most agents have access to the local multiple listing service (MLS) and they are able to set up searches for their clients so they can see what properties are currently on the market and that meet the needs of their home buyers. That MLS access also means real estate agents have access to important sales data which allows them to accurately price homes for sale for their home selling clients.
Diamante Realtors has been in business for 15 years in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Under the able leadership of its broker, Brian Westerlund (originally from Vancouver, Canada) Diamante is the premiere brokerage for foreign and Mexican buyers in La Paz, La Ventana, Cabo San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo, East Cape, Pescadero, Cerritos, Loreto and more.
With 15 bilingual agents in total Diamante works throughout the region providing honest and professional advice and assistance to buyers and sellers. We have completed over 700 sales and have represented buyers and sellers alike in negotiating all kinds of closings.
Our expertise and knowledge of real estate in Baja is legendary. We know every aspect of the business and we are well connected to notaries, other brokers, accountants, closing attorneys and tradespeople. We actively work to protect our clients from any pitfall we may encounter and we work to ensure that our clients not only find the perfect property but are happily settled in it as well. Most of our clients become friends… and recommend us to their friends. That is something we are proud of!