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Dale M.
Servetnick
Realtor, SalespersonYour
Maryland
'Net Realtor!
Long
& Foster
Real Estate, Inc.
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 Office: 800-275-6902
Direct: 301-893-6167
or 800-275-6902,
Ext. 6167
Cell: 301-751-2932
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Frequently
Asked Questions
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During the many years that
I have been working as a Realtor in Maryland, the same
questions come up over and over again. All of the
information shown below is contained in various portions
of my web site, but sometimes it's a little hard to find.
Please
don't hesitate to contact me
with any questions that you may
have about Real Estate in Maryland.
I will gladly tell you how I work as
"YOUR Maryland Internet
Realtor."
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What
does it mean to be a 'Net Realtor and how is that
different from the way other Realtors work? |
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Most
Realtors find the clients that the work for by
sitting in the office ... doing "desk
duty" and waiting for the phone to ring or
for someone to walk through the front door. I
think that's an inefficient way for me to spend
my time, so I developed this site to allow people
to contact me when they are ready ... whether
it's at midnight or at noon. Based on the e-mail
message that you send me, I can then tailor my
service to exactly what you need. For some
people, we are able to go visit properties right
away (especially if they are prepared), while for
others, it takes several days or longer. You
should also read about how I work for you As Your
Maryland 'Net Realtor. Because of the way
that I work, I am able to cover a much larger
area than most Realtors and keep my costs down.
That's the benefit that the Internet has brought
to the Real Estate business. |
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Do
you only work via e-mail? Can I contact you by
phone? |
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Quite frankly, you can
try to reach me by phone, but if I'm driving,
meeting with a client, showing properties,
attending a settlement or a seminar, I will not
answer my cell phone. Answering the phone while
driving isn't safe, so I don't do it. Answering
the phone while I'm meeting with someone is rude,
so I don't do that, either.
In
addition, I don't spend a lot of time in my Long
& Foster office, so it's hard to reach me
there, too. You can leave voice messages on
either my office phone (800-275-6902 ext 405) or
on my cell phone (301-751-2932) if you like. I
will return your call as quickly as I can!
E-mail
is certainly the easiest way to start, because I
can read exactly what you're looking for and then
do any research that's necessary before answering
you. It's very hard for me to to discuss a
property with you if I haven't had a chance to
look it up first. Hopefully, it eliminates a lot
of confusion and ineffective communications.
Naturally, once we start to visit properties, we
then coordinate our meetings by phone, but during
the initial phases, e-mail is definitely best!
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Where
can we meet to discuss buying and selling real
estate? |
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The
answer to this question varies depending on what
we are going to do. For example, if you want to
speak with me about listing your home for sale,
we will need to meet at the property so that I
can do a visual inspection to go along with the
Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) that will help
you determine the asking price you will choose.
There are Long & Foster Offices located all
over the Counties where I work, and I can meet
you at any one of them. You can look at a list of
the Long &
Foster Offices Where We Can Meet to decide what works
best for you. |
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What
will it cost me to hire you as my Realtor? How
much do you charge for your services? |
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That
depends on what you want to do. If you're selling
a property, the sales commission that I charge
now is 6% for residential properties and 10% for
land. This, too, is negotiable and, depending on
the type of property and your individual
circumstances, it could change. It is possible to
find cheaper Realtors, but I think that when you
look at the value of the services that I can
provide to you, with Long & Foster (it's 224
offices and over 16,000 agents behind me), you
will realize that it's a good deal! If you're interested in
buying a home or some land, there's a good change
that it will cost you absolutely nothing! That's
because the seller of the property pays my
commission (or at least most of it) in most
cases. You can read more about this in my Guide
to Buying a Home, specifically in The Buyer
Representation Agreement.
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Please
don't hesitate to contact me
with any questions that you may
have about Real Estate in Maryland.
I will gladly tell you how I work as
"YOUR Maryland Internet
Realtor."
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How do I
know that you are actually a licensed Realtor and
that you have the experience to handle my needs? |
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Good
Question! These days you can't be too careful.
First, I can point you to the Long & Foster corporate site, on which you can then
click on "Find A Realtor" so you can
run a search for agents by name or look at the
rosters for each of our offices (I am affiliated
with the Waldorf Office). You'll find me there!
Second, the State of Maryland Real Estate
Commission has a roster of
licensed agents that you can look at. Before I could become
licensed, I completed the mandatory 60-hour
course that is required for all Realtors. In
addition, we are required to complete 15 hours of
Continuing Education (CE) classes during every
two-year licensing period. During my last cycle,
I completed 19 hours of training on a
variety of topics.
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I'm
reluctant to share my personal information with
you ... or any other Realtor, because you can't
be too careful about releasing personal financial
details (especially over the Internet). |
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I
understand that concern completely and don't want
your personal financial information. My job as a
Realtor is to help you buy or sell property and,
for the most part, your finances are none of my
business! If you want to buy a property, though,
one thing you will need to do is speak with a
loan officer to arrange the financing. You will
need to give your financial information to him or
her. That's why I urge you to use a financial
institution that you trust. I also have a loan
officer that I deal with exclusively that I can
recommend for you. I'll gladly give you his name
and contact information if you want it. I will
not contact him on your behalf, though, unless
you authorize me to do so. In addition, I don't
share information about you with other Realtors,
mortgage lenders, title companies, or other
customers and clients. The Real Estate
Commission's Ethics rules are very explicit.
Privacy in real estate transactions is essential
... see the next question for more information.
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What can
you tell me about properties that I might be
interested in? I see some information that is
published, but I want to know more. |
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The
information that I can dislose to you about
specific properties depends on our situation ...
and exactly what you want to know. For example,
anything that is shown in the public record that
is maintained by the State of Maryland is
information that I can share with you (or anyone
else). There
is one other thing that determine what I can tell
you about a specific property (if you're thinking
about buying). That is whether or not you are a
"customer" or a "client" of
mine, which is determined by the The Buyer
Representation Agreement. If you are working
with me under an active Representation Agreement,
then I can tell you virtually anything that you
want to know, because you are my
"client." If not, then you are
considered a "customer" and I must keep
information that I obtain from the sellers of
properties confidential until such time as you
become a client.
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Please
don't hesitate to contact me
with any questions that you may
have about Real Estate in Maryland.
I will gladly tell you how I work as
"YOUR Maryland Internet
Realtor."
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I just
want to see a property, but dont' want to sign
any papers right now. Why can't we just go see
the house? |
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Under
the laws of the State of Maryland, which are
enforced by the Maryland Real Estate Commission,
there are two disclosure forms that are discussed
in Understanding
the Role of Real Estate Agents that you must read and
agree to "at the first face-to-face
meeting" to discuss real estate. In
addition, it is Long & Foster policy to
review the The Buyer
Representation Agreement with you at that time,
too. For the reasons mentioned above, it outlines
many of the procedures that we will follow, along
with what you can expect from me (and what I
expect from YOU!). Many people don't think that
they have responsibilities, too, when they're
working with a Realtor, but they do! Because I work primarily
via the Internet and don't routinely meet
potential clients until after we've started to
establish a relationship via e-mail, I have made
these forms available on my website and request
that you review and sign them and send them to me
(either by e-mail for fax). If you choose not to,
then I'm am going to be reluctant to meet with
you to show you properties. This is because you
could very easily visit a house with me and then
go to another Realtor to write an offer. That's
unacceptable behavior that no Realtor will
tolerate (and may put you and the other Realtor
in violtion of the Ethics Laws).
The final
portion of this answer has to do with the
pre-qualification or pre-approval by a loan
officer. The real estate market is such right now
that you need to have this done before we can go
out looking at properties. That's because most
properties are selling so fast that there isn't
time to get the loan process started afterwards.
In addition, while it is not necessarily Long
& Foster's Corporate policy to get a
pre-qualification first, it is MY
policy. I am contacted by so many people that I
need to have some measurement of how serious a
potential buyer is about finding a property.
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If I buy
a property, how much money will I need to bring
to settlement? If I sell a property, how much
money will I take away from settlement? |
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Naturally,
that all depends on quite a few different
factors, which are different for buyers and
sellers. In both cases, there are also State and
County transfer and recordation taxes that must
be paid by both buyers and sellers. There will
also be adjustments for property taxes and HOA or
Condo assessments that have been paid in advance. Let's address buying a
property, first. As a very rough estimate, you
should anticipate that you will need to bring a
check to settlement that is for roughly 5% of the
total purchase price ... so if you're buying a
$100,000 property, your settlement charges should
be somewhere around $5,000. The big uncertainty
here are the fees that your lender will charge
you (and I don't have any influence on that).
If you're
selling a property, the amount of money that you
will receive at settlement depends upon the final
payoff of any mortgages that you have on the
property, along with other charges that are
normally the seller's responsibility, such as the
sales commission.
In either case,
I have information that will help you figure this
out. For someone buying a property, once we write
an offer on a property that is accepted (meaning
that we have a ratified contract), I will provide
you with a Buyer's Expense Sheet,
which will explain to you what I believe your
closing costs will be. For the seller of a
property, I will provide you with a Seller's
Net Sheet at the time when you sign a
listing agrrement. This will show you an estimate
of the settlement costs you will pay and, most
importantly, which I believe your bottom line
will be. We will update this form once we receive
offers for the property. I'm working on a new
section for my web site that will outline these
costs in greater detail.
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Please
don't hesitate to contact me
with any questions that you may
have about Real Estate in Maryland.
I will gladly tell you how I work as
"YOUR Maryland Internet
Realtor."
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