Signature Place (click for larger view)
Today’s Monday, and that usually means that I’m going to say something about Real Estate. Today’s post is a little bit of advice about purchasing a condominium in a newly constructed condo building.
My wife and I have some friends who decided, somewhat on a whim last week, to go downtown and look at the new Signature Place condominiums. They had considered selling their house and moving into a downtown condo last year, and I set up a search for them and took them to see some condos downtown. But then they decided that it wasn’t time for them yet, and maybe they’d reconsider in a few years, after their son finished college and they were certain they wouldn’t need to have the extra room that they had in their house.
But on this day last week, they awoke and they just happened to see an article in the St. Petersburg Times about Signature Place, and they thought it would be fun to go downtown and look around. Much to their surprise, after walking around and seeing several condos, they decided to make an offer on one. Within a couple of days, their offer was accepted and they bought the condo. Nothing wrong with that; Signature Place is gorgeous and I know they’re going to love living there.
But they, like so many other people, thought that, because Signature Place is a newly constructed building, they had no options other than to walk into the Sales Office and deal with the nice sales agents who work there. And that is simply not true!
I hope that they got a good deal. They probably did fine, since Signature Place recently dropped prices of all their units by 25% to recognize the current market. But they did not have anyone representing them, looking out for them, negotiating for them. And that’s just foolish. Virtually any Real Estate expert will tell you that you should have someone working with you, someone to be your advocate, someone watching out for your interest when you’re in the process of purchasing a new home.
And it’s a shame that the reason that they had no one representing them is because they didn’t know that they had the option. I do not blame the sales people at Signature Place – they were simply doing their job, and that’s why they are there. But if our friends had known, they could still have chosen, on the spur of the moment, to drive down to Signature Place, and when they walked into the Sales Office, they could have said “We are working with a Realtor”. They would still have had a friendly, courteous sales agent show them around, and they would still have had the same experience. But before submitting their offer, they would have had a chance to work with a professional Realtor who would be representing them, acting on their behalf, to ensure that they got the best deal possible.
So, readers, if you should ever find yourself (or if you know of a friend) in the position of even considering purchasing a condominium (or a newly constructed home, for that matter), I encourage you to contact your favorite Realtor and arrange for them to be your advocate, your Buyer’s Agent, before you go off for that ‘just for fun’ look! Using a Realtor to help you purchase a new home does NOT cost you a cent. The Realtor’s commission is paid by the selling party. And your Realtor can even call ahead and pre-register you to see condos in several new buildings, and you’ll get the Royal treatment when you arrive. But you’ll have someone watching your back before you sign on the dotted line!
