8 Tips to Guide for Your Home Search
1) Research before you look. Decide what features you most want to have in a home, what neighborhoods you prefer, and how much you'd be willing to spend each month for housing.
2) Be realistic. It’s OK to be picky, but don’t be unrealistic with your expectations. There’s no such thing as a perfect home. Use your list of priorities as a guide to evaluate each property.
3) Get your finances in order. Review your credit report and be sure you have enough money to cover your down payment and closing costs. Then, talk to a lender and get prequalified for a mortgage. This will save you the heartache later of falling in love with a house you can’t afford.
4) Don’t ask too many people for opinions. It will drive you crazy. Select one or two people to turn to if you feel you need a second opinion, but be ready to make the final decision on your own. You will be the one that will be ultimately living in the home and paying the mortgage payment.
5) Decide your moving timeline. When is your lease up? Are you allowed to sublet? How tight is the rental market in your area? All of these factors will help you determine when you should move.
6) Think long term. Are you looking for a starter house with plans to move up in a few years, or do you hope to stay in this home for a longer period? This decision may dictate what type of home you’ll buy as well as the type of mortgage terms that will best suit you.
7) Insist on a home inspection. If possible, get a warranty from the seller to cover defects for one year.
8) Get help from a REALTOR®. Hire a real estate professional who specializes in buyer representation. Unlike a listing agent, whose first duty is to the seller, a buyer’s representative is working only for you. Buyer’s reps are usually paid out of the seller’s commission payment.
The 8 Steps We Will Take To Sell Your Home
1) Pre-walk and Staging. When you are ready to put your home on the market, I'd like to come by at least a week or so in advance and do a "walk through" with you, giving you tips on how to "stage" your home and anything we need to do to make it more "showable".
2) Market Analysis. Around that time, I will also provide you with an updated market analysis, and we can decide our pricing strategy for the current market conditions. In addition, we will go over the marketing plan for your home.
3) Completing the paperwork. We will determine the date you want to put it on the market, and sign the paperwork.
4) Marketing. Once we put it on the market, there is a ton of marketing that gets started, including virtual tours/photos, magazine ads, a HUGE internet presence, mail outs, etc...
5) Responding to the Market. Then we listen to the market to see if there will be a buyer out there that will be interested. During tough market conditions I will make recommendations to position yourself to the best possibility of get your home sold, and for a good price.
6) Negotiating the Contract. After we get an offer, it will be a process of analyzing the pros/cons of the terms, determining our counter - and eventual final agreement.
7) Coordinating the Sale. There is an involved process of coordinating the closing, which includes appraisal, inspections, quotes and repairs, loan approval, survey, title work, etc...
8) Closing. Finally, you close on the sale, and collect your check, which will include paying off your mortgage(s), closing costs, and realtor fees. An estimate of the sum of those fees will depend on the final sales price, but I can give you a pretty good estimate in the beginning.
