Remote homebuying can happen when you want to secure a home in another state or hundreds of miles away. We have served several customers relocating to Port St Lucie from states like New York, Colorado, and Texas. We’ve helped people moving here from other countries. A few have moved from cities to the south of Port St Lucie in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, or the Florida Keys. We seem to help people from Broward County move to Port St Lucie because it’s so much cheaper.
A couple from the Midwest United States had friends that lived here in Port St Lucie Florida. This couple decided they wanted to live in the same neighborhood to be near their friends for the snowbird season.
How would they go about finding a real estate agent that would work for them? Other than their friends, they had no contacts.
This is their story.
The Remote Homebying Online Home Search
They chose one of the home portals to start watching for properties in the chosen neighborhood.
These portals will sell your information to anyone as soon as you click any contact/schedule button, and you have no idea if the agent on the other end of that button will be working for you.
This couple intentionally chose not to have their information sold in this way and wind up with a total stranger that may or may not be the right fit.
Eventually, what looked to be the right home appeared in the notification list. From the pictures, it fit the criteria this family wanted.
Finding the Right Real Estate Agent
This is where homebuyers face a choice, particularly those who try to buy a home remotely: how to find the best real estate agent for you?
They faced this choice, and they solved it in a really good way.
In their hometown, they had a strong relationship with a Keller Williams agent. They asked him for a recommendation. That Keller Williams real estate agent did some research in the Keller Williams network looking for a great referral agent in the Port St Lucie Market Center.
This agent found us. He called and we answered the phone. This allowed him to interview us to see if we had the experience base to serve his customers. This kind of investigation interviewing is something that great agents do when making referrals.
We won the business and the warm handoff referral was made.
We accept referrals from other real estate agents and give agent referrals when we send our customers to an agent in another city outside of our reach.
For this family wanting an investment home near friends here in Port St Lucie, this warm handoff created by their trusted Keller Williams real estate agent was how they found the right agent for Port St Lucie.
The Unexpected Detour
We connected with the Midwest couple, and learned about the house they were interested in. They wanted to put a contract on a house without seeing in it in person first, but use the inspection period to fly out and see it.
This is an allowable strategy. We put the purchase offer together, got it digitally signed, and then accepted by the seller. Inspections were arranged.
We met up with the inspector, the family, the listing agent, and discovered this wasn’t the right house for the family.
It was an unexpected detour in the homebuying journey
Remote Homebuying: Where Real Estate Agents Shine
This is where having the right real estate agent at your side comes to play.
The Casas De Walker team was able to secure 5 more property showings in the same neighborhood that afternoon. Not every team has that kind of flexibility.
By the evening, a new contract was in place on another property with an inspection scheduled in 2 days, with that inspection happening after the customer would fly back to their home city.
It was the job of the Casas de Walker team to navigate the inspection, the paperwork, the HOA applications, and all the other paperwork necessary to get the home to closing.
More Detours in the Remote Homebuying Journey
No two homebuyer journeys are the same. This one hit four more detours along the way.
The home required a second inspection to coordinate, inspect, and document.
The HOA required some repairs to get done as part of permitting the seller to sell.
When the title search was done, it was discovered that the chain of title had a defect that would require weeks to repair, thus delaying the closing by nearly a month.
Finally, when there was a dispute over an item contractually included in the sale of the house, the customer benefited from us protecting their contract and getting it sorted out.
Eventually, the property closed and the new owners were thrilled.
Learnings: Why Use a Real Estate Agent to Buy a Home Where You Don’t Live?
The big learning from this customer’s journey: choosing a local real estate agent can solve the unexpected problems that come up in the homebuying journey.
Rather than picking a random agent who bought their information from a portal, they trusted their local real estate agent to find them a good connection.
As the challenges popped up along the way, we were there to be the problem solvers for this couple. They were not first-time homebuyers and were well-experienced in the process of buying a home. They needed an experienced agent who could solve problems when needed and that’s what we provided.
Let us be Your Local Real Estate Agent
If you are still searching for a local Port St Lucie real estate agent, consider us. Check out our customer reviews, then book a consultation call
