A real estate agent's true view of a real estate transaction.

I've been thinking that HGTV should have a program that shows what a true real estate transaction looks like. Shows like House Hunters let it be assumed that all you need to do to buy a home is sign one piece a paper, hold your breath, and BOOM you've just bought a house. (If it were only that simple!)

*They don't show the back and forth between seller to agent, agent to agent, and then agent to buyer.
*They also don't show the countless homes that an agent takes the buyers to go show. (Trust me it is very rarely just 3 homes they look at.)
*Then you've got to get signatures on an offer. That offer then has to get ratified, (approved by all parties).
*Then a home inspection if applicable.
*Then comes an appraisal in most cases, especially if the loan is government backed, (think FHA loans).

Long story short, this is only a part of the real estate agent's responsibilities. I'm not covering any of the financing that is involved! So as you can see a lot more is involved than the initial signature on an offer. And it can take a while to find the right home for you and then for a standard deal it can take about a month to close and finalize everything.

Just so you can see a little into my schedule this week: On Thursday of last week, I received the ratified contract on a home in Virginia Beach for a great couple that I've been working with for 6 months. I've set the home inspection for Wednesday and then as long as all goes as planned we'll have an appraisal on Thursday. After that we should be in good standing and we're hoping for a great closing towards the end of February!

Now I'm not posting this to complain...far from it! I only wish to inform and better prepare those looking to buy a home. I love what I do and I'm always super happy to help anyone during any phase of their home buying journey!