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For Home Buyers

Are you a first timer or seasoned homebuyer?  

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Have you done all the prep work necessary to move forward?  

Have you decided on a budget and the type of home you want?  

There's usually more to consider than you first thought.  

Easy way or hard way?  

Seems obvious, right? But if you don't ask the hard questions first, it's usually an uphill climb right from the start.  If you're like most, you will begin looking on Zillow, Realtor.com, etc, to see how certain communities or neighborhoods are priced and what's selling.  At some point you might call the agent on the screen to the right of a favorite property, assume it's the listing agent (sometimes yes, sometimes not so much) to get some more info, maybe even make an appointment to go see it.  But by skipping some steps in between, you're likely missing out.

Here's why:

  • If you haven't talked to a lender yet, you may not be looking in the right price range (ask me about maximizing your search once you have a pre-approval)

  • If the agent is the listing agent, you will have no representation and be on your own to determine an offer price and negotiate a contract (per state license law)

  • If the agent is not the listing agent, he/she may not even be familiar with the area, let alone the property (ask me how that works)

  • Consumer real estate search sites will never show a property as under contract-- listings go right from active to closed

  • If a buyer repeats this process enough times with various agents or keeps running into listings no longer available, it will become frustrating
real estate buyers decision

If you noticed the boxes at the top of the page, find a Realtor and look for a lender--and house.   Nothing wrong with scouting out homes on line, but when you get serious, have a pre-approval in hand.  Lenders, like Realtors, are not all created equal, so talk to 2 or 3 to shop rates and fees.  Make sure you're comparing apples to apples!  Or better yet, ask your agent for a referral and how to make your offer stand out.

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Comparing apples to apples

Speaking of agents, there's a lot of us who know the process inside and out, know whom to call when we run into sticky wickets, consistently keep our clients in the loop, and return calls after 9pm.  Most of us are ethical to a fault and we keep our ear to the ground at all times for news of upcoming listings that our clients may love.  We can't imagine working in another profession and enjoy helping people in general.  We make a commitment to you.  That's who we are.  

 

And yet we're all different with diverse knowledge and experience. 

Here's some questions for your Realtor before you commit:  How long have you been the business? Are you full-time?  Do you work with sellers as well as buyers (it's like yin and yang--you need to know what both want beyond the bottom line in the current market).  Do you know the local markets being considered?  How do you determine if homes are priced well or not?  Can you spot potential problems that might make a house undesirable? What do you do to keep the transaction moving along if it develops a bottleneck?  Do your closings generally close on time with a realistic timeline?  There's lots of lender questions too, but we'll save that for another time.

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In the end, just as you choose your home with your heart, choose your Realtor the same way and make a commitment to that person. Why should that be important to you on several levels?  You got it!  Ask me!  Buying a home is a life changing event, whether it's your first or fifth.  You're not just buying a house, you're investing in a community, maybe a school system, meeting people and making friends you'd never have otherwise met.  This is too important not to be guided and counseled by someone in alignment with you.

 

If you've read this far, may I throw my hat in the ring?  (Figuratively speaking...I have a thing about hats--they give me hat head!)

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