Who’s On Your Team

We all have our “team” in life. The experts that do for us the things that we can’t do or don’t have time to do, ourselves. There’s our hairdressers and barbers, our dentists and doctors, our mechanics and our plumbers, among many others. We find our way to our team members usually through trusted recommendations and then trial and error. It can be a painful process but when we find that professional we can totally trust, it feels like we’ve struck gold and their names get written in permanent marker on the roster.

Becoming a homeowner involves putting together a new team of professionals and the more attention you pay to scouting them, the smoother your home buying experience will be. Interestingly, buying a home can often be a rather spontaneous event - some people spend more time mulling over a pair of shoes than they do a home. Houses usually either feel right or wrong immediately and when you find the right one, even if you were only intending on “browsing”, you may suddenly find yourself making an offer. It’s at this stage that team building can go wrong as you may be putting yourself in a position to have to take what you can get based on availability instead of ability.

To avoid this, as soon as you find yourself browsing the real estate pages or you are nearing your goal for down payment savings, it’s time to start auditioning members of your Real Estate Team. Here are the positions that will need to be filled:

• Real Estate Agent
• Mortgage Specialist
• Home Inspector
• Lawyer
• Insurance Broker Professional

In all cases, you’ll want to find professionals that you feel at ease with. This is of key importance because you’ll have lots of questions and so you should. This will most likely be the largest investment of your life so you need people in your corner who are mindful of this. If you feel intimidated, belittled or pressured in any way, keep looking. Remember, even when it comes to financial products like mortgages, YOU are the customer.

Take the time to speak with all of these professionals before you actually need them. Find out how they communicate with their clients, how they handle mistakes and any guarantees of service they may offer. Check with their licensing bodies for any complaints that may have been registered against them. Because a home and a mortgage will affect your way of life for many years to come, each member of your home buying team should be interested not only in your immediate but also your future goals, both personally and financially.

Real estate professionals work together on a daily basis and each of them may be able to recommend another if you need some suggestions. This can sometimes be a good thing as they already know how to work efficiently with one another but you should never feel pressured to work with a referral.

There some excellent realtors, mortgage brokers, lawyers and home inspectors in Edmonton and Calgary who are interested in educating and empowering their clients to achieve their real estate goals. It’s well within your reach to have a positive and fruitful home buying experience just sure to grab your clip board, hold your try-outs and build your team for success.

Contact one of our Licensed Mortgage Brokers or Licensed Insurance Agent if you'd like more information about our Trusted Professional Referral Partners.