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The three R’s of real estate: Read, research, rights

Whether you are a buyer or a seller, you should be forearmed with the three R’s of a real estate transaction – read, research and rights.

Here’s how this breaks down.

Read: Read your local news feeds on the market conditions in your area. Read your purchase contract. Read your home inspection report. Read attachments to the emails from your agent and escrow officer. And read the tea leaves.

Information is power, and you’ll be provided a plethora of reading material before, during and after your transaction.

California real estate agents rely on the forms provided by the California Association of Realtors which are vetted by the CAR attorneys and a committee of experienced agents to adequately protect buyers and sellers from things that might go awry.

Reading these contracts will help you understand what you are getting and giving, when that is scheduled to happen and your responsibilities along the way.

Of course, a good agent is there to support you. Reading the documents helps that go more smoothly, in most cases.

Research: Buyers should do their research, taking advantage of all of the information available online and in print.

Use your search to research the neighborhoods you’re most attracted to. Look up crime statistics. Look for the list of registered sex offenders.

Check out the schools on the school rating websites and apps. Then go to the individual school websites to get a sense of the character of each one.

Get the Zestimate for homes you are considering. There also are value estimates on other sites, such as Redfin.

Go to the Facebook pages for your city, neighborhood and schools See what kind of content local people are posting and engaging with.

Look up the Instagram for the school principal and the teachers in the departments most important to your kids. Leave no stone unturned.

Rights: Know what you can and can’t do.

You may want to know the right way to do inspections, making sure to take the necessary Covid-19 precautions.

If more extensive investigation is indicated, know what you have to do to prod and poke, and how you need to leave it once you’ve satisfied your curiosity.

Sellers need to be aware of the right way to leave the house when you’re all packed up and the moving van is driving away.

And since you’ve all read the contract from front to back, you’ll all be on the same page about what needs to stay in the house and not go in the moving van.

And if there should be a discrepancy in what is or is not in the house when you turn the key to walk in for the first time, go back and re-read the contract.

Leslie Sargent Eskildsen is an agent with Realty One Group West. She can be reached at 949-678-3373 or leslie@leslieeskildsen.com.


Source: Orange County Register

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