Once You Move In, Contact Your Real Estate Agent For These Referrals
A real estate agent can prove to be highly valuable during the process of buying your home, but you don't need to sever the relationship with this professional once your closing date arrives. As you begin to get unpacked and take stock of the work that you'll need to do inside and outside your home, it's advantageous to contact your real estate agent to get some referrals for contractors who can do the job properly and at a good price. Choosing a contractor can be arduous on your own, but with your real estate agent's recommendations, the process will be pain free. Here are some referrals to make sure that you get.
Electrician
An electrician is valuable to hire after you move into a home. Unless it's a new build, you'll likely have some work that you want to get done — and perhaps your real estate agent will have pointed out some of these jobs when you viewed the home some weeks or months earlier. Your agent can often recommend one or more electricians in the community. In many cases, the agent will have hired an electrician to make some changes to a house being listed for sale so that it can demand a higher value.
General Contracting
Many real estate agents have close relationships with general contractors and rely on these professionals to get work done on homes that will soon be listed on the market. You can count on getting a solid referral for a general contractor from your real estate agent. Partnering with this professional is ideal because he or she can handle a wide range of jobs. Outdoors, a general contractor can build a fence, build a new deck, or put down a new patio. Inside, the contractor can handle many jobs, such as redoing a kitchen or bathroom.
Painter
While you can certainly think about painting the individual rooms inside your home on your own, it's often ideal to turn this job over to a trained professional. A painting contractor has the skills and expertise to get the job done more quickly than you and with less mess. Because you don't want to trust the beauty of your home to just anyone, ask your real estate agent for his or her recommendation. As with other contractors, real estate agents will often work with painters to prepare homes for sale, and your agent will be able to give you the name of a high-quality painter.