Don’t miss out. Skip to the entry you want to read by clicking on the links below.
PART 1: MEET THE TAYLORS,PART 2: FINDING THE RIGHT REAL ESTATE AGENT,PART 3: CHOOSING A HOUSE, PART 4: WHY WE DIDN’T GET OUR MORTGAGE FROM A CREDIT UNION, PART 5: OUR MORTGAGE 5 MONTHS LATER,PART 6: 3 WAYS TO HELP FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS,PART 7: WHAT WE’VE LEARNED GOING FROM RENTERS TO HOMEOWNERS (COMING SOON)
Victoria Taylor, a marketing and engagement manager at Callahan & Associates, and her husband, Matt, are on the hunt to find a perfect home. Join them on their journey in this CreditUnions.com timeline exclusive.
Finding The Right Real Estate Agent
Greensboro is a city of approximately 280,000 located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. At 75 miles west of Raleigh and 90 miles northeast of Charlotte, locals like to say it’s within driving distance of just about everywhere.
The cost of living score is 92 on a scale of 100, unemployment is typically below the state average, and the average home value is $128,500.
Finding the right real estate agent is especially important to us. We are anxious to begin the home-buying process but don’t want to rush into this blindly.
We started our search by asking Matt’s local co-workers for recommendations and turned to local search and online reviews to find agents with whom we might be interested in working. We interviewed several agents, keeping in mind the following criteria:
- Experience in the Piedmont Triad market: Because we are unfamiliar with Greensboro, we are looking for an agent who knows the city and surrounding areas and can guide us toward the right neighborhood and a home with good resale potential.
- Experience with first-time homebuyers:As first-time homebuyers, we have a lot of questions some that are probably very basic. We are looking for an agent who is patient and willing to walk us through the process step-by-step.
- An authentic personality:We want a real estate agent who is authentic in their advice and feedback, not onewho will tell us what we want to hear make a sale (and get paid). This means telling us when they think a neighborhoodor house might not be the right fit for us or if we have unreasonable expectations or requests.
After speaking with several agents by phone, email, and in-person, we chose Patrick, a realtor with a story similar to ours.
Although Patrick is originally from Greensboro, he and his wife lived in Northern Virginia for several years before moving back to Greensboro. He also grew up with Lhasa Apsos. Victoria says this means that we and Patrick were destined to be together.
Now that we’ve found a real estate agent, it’s time to begin the house hunt!
Matt Taylorcontributed to this article.
Click through the timeline below to see homebuying milestones and read more from the series. Come back to CreditUnions.com to read about the Taylors’ experience in finding their perfect home.
