• Help with finding the best home for them.
• Help them understand the home-buying process
• Provide geographic knowledge of surrounding home search areas
• Show them all homes available within their price range and search criteria.
• Point out unobserved features or faults with a property.
• Help to negotiate the best possible price and terms of the sale.
• Provide estimate of closing costs
• Manage the paperwork flow.
• Furnish a list of service providers.
• Help resolve mortgage, inspection, and other pre-closing issues.

These are but a few of the many issues and concerns facing home buyers in today’s market. Please feel free to add your own wants and needs in the comments section below.

As a local or out of town home buyer, identifying suitable Stuart area property listings can be daunting when it comes to using the myriad of online search tools currently available. Evolving Web 2.0 technologies have made it it easier than ever to learn about, buy, sell, or rent properties. While your search preferences may range,  amongst others,  from Realtor.com, to Zillow or Trulia, each has its pluses and minuses when it comes to finding the right home for you.

I have found the clients I work with typically use several real estate search engines to “triangulate” on properties and areas of interest. My own online home search pages offer a blend of some of the best home search tools currently available to find real estate in Stuart, Florida, including links to our Multiple Listing Service through MLS Homefinder, MapTracks and Listingbook . These tools give you real time access to our MLS.

Online home search tools will generate a number of properties for your consideration. But it is raw data and not always accurate or up to date. That’s when it’s time to involve a local REALTOR®, who can provide expert knowledge of Stuart area homes and neighborhoods and represent you in your transaction (my out of town clients typically forward hundreds of property listings to me every day in order to gain feedback and guidance in selecting the best properties to see when they arrive).

As a Web savvy REALTOR® serving South Florida’s Treasure Coast, I can quickly filter your property selections through our MLS system, providing you with currently available listings. More important, as an agent with local expert knowledge, I will help you see past the “fluff” and recommend homes you will want to visit when it is time to schedule a tour.

This post has been authored by Eric Slifkin, REALTOR® serving South Florida’s Treasure Coast. You can reach me at 888-288-1765, or visit my Web site at www.TreasureCoastHomeSales.com. As your resource for information on new or resale homes throughout the Treasure Coast, please be sure to contact me about any home you may find on the Web, yard sign or ad and I will research the property, arrange showings and handle all the details.

Customer service is paramount to generating trust and sales in real estate. In this third of three posts I discuss a recent experience with an absentee landlord:

The Absentee Landlord…

This post is not just a customer service experience but also illustrates the dark side of serving the client. In this case the culprit was a rental agent who managed to neglect his client’s listing for six months after it became vacant.

I was referred to the client, an investor from California. He had assigned the task of finding a tenant to a well known broker who rented it. But after the tenant left he never bothered to find another tenant or even check on the unit’s condition. I picked up the rental listing and discovered the refrigerator had leaked water onto the kitchen floor. The water was absorbed by an adjacent cabinet that was quickly ruined. There was also a myriad of wear and tear items needing repair along with painting, cleaning and landscaping. With the owners permission I brought in a painter, cleaning service and handyman to get the unit “rent ready”. I also discovered the A/C unit had not been serviced in two years and contacted a local HVAC company. As the work neared completion I began advertising the unit and quickly found a tenant, who moved in just as the contractors were finishing up. Even though it cost the absentee landlord almost $10,000 in lost rent and repairs, he was pleased to have his rental brought back up to speed with a tenant in place just weeks after listing the property with me.

Customer service is paramount to generating trust and sales in real estate. In this second of three posts I discuss a recent experience with an out of town buyer:

The Out of Town Buyer…

They were a professional couple from Boston seeking a club community offering both golf and boating who surfed into my Web site one evening. Their Email asked if such properties existed in our section of the Treasure Coast and could I show them listings the next day – the only time they had left before heading home. “Express” showings are a specialty of mine and I showed them a half dozen properties while introducing them to Palm City. They fell in love with a beautiful club community and a property with a terrific waterfront location. Three weeks later they were back for another look and we submitted an offer that was several hundred thousand below asking price. Needless to say the counter was laughable and they resigned themselves to not getting their dream home. But I encouraged them to stick with it and after months of on and off negotiating, a change of listing agents and a dearth of other buyers an offer was accepted just $50,000 above the original. With the buyers back home and unable to return during the settlement process I handled all the details including inspections, post-closing repairs and finding a tenant (they decided to rent it out the first year). All these activities were transparent to my clients, who tended to their busy schedules. They were truly amazed how easy I made the transaction for them and recently referred another client who is interested in a similar property.

Customer service is paramount to generating trust and sales in real estate. Nearly every agent Web site you encounter references “customer service” and how great we are at delivering it. Other than client testimonials, little anecdotal evidence accompanies the claim of giving great customer service. That said, here are several instances of customer service I have been privileged to deliver over the last several years (first of three posts):

Mature Moves…

This senior client needed to sell her home and buy another quickly, which sounds simple enough. But other than the equity in her home she had limited funds, no family and just a few friends who helped as best they could. The mission was to sell her home and perform a simultaneous closing on another without providing a good faith deposit. Also, she wanted to find a place to retire on the water for under $250,000!

Several weeks later we found a buyer. We now had 30 days to find another home – on the water. We began researching waterfront communities all over Florida and my client found a new condo in the Panhandle, which is a five hour drive from the Treasure Coast. I arranged for her to meet with the builder and was to receive a referral fee for my efforts but her 20 year old car decided to quit. So off we went in my car. The condo was in a tiny hamlet just steps from the gulf and she decided to purchase it. After some negotiating the builder agreed to go to contract with just her signature and the promise of wiring funds for the all cash transaction on the day of closing.

Now all we had to do was get her packed and moved. Flash forward to moving day. The movers were a free lance operation and were nowhere to be found on closing day, so I rented a van and drove my client and her belongings to her new home, arriving after midnight. My colleagues thought I was certifiable but helping my client achieve her goal was its own reward.

Customer Service in Real Estate- Part 2

Customer Service in Real Estate Part 3