There are common mistakes most buyers commit especially for first time home buyers. If you ask almost any real estate agent that has been in the business for a number of years “What is the costliest mistake the first time home buyer make” and a high percentage of them will say “Not choosing the agent that's right for you” or “Choosing a bad and inexperienced agent”.

Hi everyone. This is your Tampa Bay realtor Lance Mohr and in this video, I want to go over the costliest mistake for first-time homebuyers in three tips on how you could avoid this huge mistake. So after being in the business for over 20 years, I could tell you the number one mistake that first-time homebuyers make is not choosing the agent that's right for you. Just walking into an open house and choosing an agent because they're nice or an agent maybe you called on an ad or maybe a referral, you need to do your due diligence. You need to choose an agent that's right for you, that knows what they're doing. So in other words, you want an agent that's honest. Someone who's going to look out for your best interests. Someone who is knowledgeable, someone who's experienced, someone who knows how to negotiate. Someone who's going to be able to walk you through the home process whether you're buying a new home or a pre-owned home.

Because the one thing I always ask my first-time homebuyers, I always say, “Do you have any questions?” The vast majority of everybody will say, “No.” And I say, “Yes, I understand because it's hard to ask a question if you don't know what to ask, right?” Well, you need an agent that's going to answer those questions before you even ask them, that could guide you through the process. So you need to make sure they're experienced with first-time homebuyers. Or if you're buying a new home, they're experienced with new home construction. So let me give you two examples of why this is so important. We're in a very tight market right now. Let's say you're in a multiple bid situation right now and you're looking at other homes with other buyers bidding on the same home.

If the agent doesn't understand and know how to negotiate, you could be the winning bidder that ends up paying thousands of dollars more for the home than you need to. Or even worse, you don't get the home at all. Let's say you're getting a loan and you want to send over your realtor the good faith estimate. If they don't understand lending and what they're looking at, your lender could be taking advantage of you. You could be paying hundreds of dollars more in closing costs and thousands and tens of thousands of dollars more money over the life of the loan. Your real estate agent needs to be knowledgeable and needs to educate you.

It's sort of like going on the corner, taking any financial planner and wanting them to invest you and your family's money for your future not knowing anything about it. So do your due diligence. Here are three things that you should do. Number one, and we'll actually not put them in any order but one thing you should do is you should go into Google, type their name, find out a little bit about them, maybe Joe Doe whatever, Des Moines, Iowa realtor. So you don't get the wrong person just put the city and then realtor so you have the right person. Look at their website. Do they have a website? If they have a website, is it a professional-looking website? Do they have a LinkedIn page? Do they have a Facebook page, a Facebook business page? Do they have blogs or articles that they've written? Do they seem like an expert? Do they have an Internet presence? This is going to tell you a lot about the agent. That's the first thing you need to do.

The second thing is to go to their YouTube Channel. Look at their YouTube videos. Make sure they know what they're talking about, that they're professional, that they're an educator. They are someone who is a leader in their area and they do understand real estate. You could also go to their blog and their website read some of their articles and see if they know what they're talking about. The third thing is, and I think this is really important, is to ask a couple questions. Why should I use you and what do you do differently than the other realtors? You need to ask these questions to get an idea of who you're dealing with. Again, it doesn't make a difference what part of the country you're in. You could be in Tampa where I'm at, you could be in Des Moines, Iowa, it doesn't make any difference. Do your due diligence. You owe this to you and you and your family to find the best agent you could possibly find. I wish you the best of luck.

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