Somebody conversant with the housing market of the area/town in which you are looking for a house. Why is this important? It's because your agent will find for you what you want within your budget and needs.
Step 2. Finding your desired house.
The agent will show you a list of available houses to look at or better, you can even go out yourself and look around, or also check online for up-to-date property website listings.
Criteria for searching a house could be in terms of size (sqft), number of rooms, number of bathrooms or amenities around the house.
Step 3. Once you pick a house from the listing, you hire a lawyer.
Your lawyer and the agent will work together to prepare a document "an agreement of purchase or sale" or "offer to purchase".
This document has your name, seller's name, property address, the price you're willing to pay, deposit amount, a closing day normally 90days, request of current land survey (the land where the property sits on), date of offer expiry (when the agreement will expire in case an agreement has not been reached between you and the seller).
Step 4. Negotiate.
If the seller accepts your offer to buy, it means the property is still in the market, you could be one among a couple of buyers with different offers.
Sometimes you could go look at a property, make an agreement only to be informed of the sale of the property by an earlier buyer.
However, if the property is still on market, the seller might make a counter-offer which is usually higher than your offer, or suggest different terms from your lawyer's and agent's offer document.
If both parties agree, we move to step 5.
Step 5. Mode of payment.
Here we have cash buyers and mortgage buyers. This is where you and the seller agree on the mode of payment.
Step 6. Review of documents.
If you are buying in cash, your lawyer will proceed and review all documents, conduct a title search and review all the documents that you and the seller signed.
Step 7. Pay up.
After payment, your lawyer closes the title.
Step 8. Property inspection.
You as the buyer are granted the right to inspect the property.
If you feel generous enough, you could pay your agent something small, but normally it's not a must.
Why? Agents are usually paid a certain commission by the property seller, hence you don't have to pay him/her.