Buying a Home, Where to start
As a real estate expert, we see people buy homes all year round. One of the crazy things about our business is that as we try and educate the public about the process, the reality is most people stumble blindly through the process and in the end never really knew how it works or if they did it correctly. See just because you move in didn't mean the transaction was a success. Many people get lucky they didn't incur some liabilities or just simply didn't get the best home or the the best price and terms on the home or the loan. I've found it particularly interesting that a large portion of people since they only do this a few times in their life don't really know what the standards are for a good Realtor, or a good loan. So I wanted to take a moment and just touch on the basic outline of the transaction and the goods, bads, and uglies of buying a home.
The transaction follows a basic pattern. Buyers don't always follow this pattern so there is the pattern of what buyers usually do and what they should do. The pattern that should be followed might go like this. Buyer finds and selects the best agent to help them get started. Now hold on, this sounds weird, you mean they should have a agent before they even started looking, got pre qualified, or anything. Yes. The fact is the Realtor is the first place to start because they will make sure you do all the other things efficiently and will guide you before you make any mistakes. That being said, there is a big difference in one agent to the next and this is why people usually don't get an agent early. They may pick fast Eddie the used car salesman who wants to throw them into a house and make a paycheck as fast as possible even if it's not the right home for them. Or you have Johnny newbie who may not know what he's doing and just got his license yesterday and is going to experiment with you and your money. Maybe you have sally superstar who drives the hummer and doesn't have time for you. These are all examples of types of people you may encounter.
I believe it takes a right balance of Realtor to help people in this business and everyone is different and may like a different approach, but the public should know what is important in making that decision. Our slogan is "Experts that Care!" I chose that because when I boiled it down it seemed to embody what I find important in choosing a Realtor. It's not good enough to hire aunt Sally who is so nice because if she isn't an expert when things go bad you'll have a tough time firing her and your relationship will suffer in the end anyway. Keep your friends friends unless they are an expert at what they do. Or you have slick Sam who is and expert but if he doesn't care about you you won't get any benefit from his expertise or he'll be to busy for you. You need a blend of the two to be successful.
The key points to look for in an agent in the buying process is patience, expertise, good tools and systems to get you the information on homes for sale that lets you have control of criteria, I prefer a team because the better agents will be busy and it's nice to have a team so more than one person can help you in a time pinch. You have to get a good feel for the agent. Don't be pushed around! So many times I hear stories of clients we are helping about the last Realtor who didn't treat them nice or was pushy or rude. I always say"don't let someone make money on you who doesn't respect you and treat you nice" They also should have some good contacts. Ask questions like who do you use for a lender, inspector, insurance, closer, and why? Have you tried different people and why did you pick the ones your using now. If their network is not tested or good you may not notice until it's too late. Remember their friends are now your friends when it comes to the transaction so ask some questions.
once you pick the right Realtor and feel has alot to do with it, they should be able to get you set up with a lender to get pre-qualified. I know this is the scary part. But don't be scared it's essential to know where you want to be on payment and what you can qualify for so your looking at the right homes. Many start to high or too low, most to high and then they get depressed when they start looking at homes they can actually afford. There is always an upgrade but no sense looking at the 3 car garage if you can't get it right now. Lenders in my experience can really mess up a transaction late in the game so this is important. So important in fact that I got licensed to do the loans for my clients myself. One stop shopping. I had to many problems sending my clients off to someone who may not do as good a job as me. It also takes one more person out of the loop so communication is faster and better.
Once you have the lender squared away your Realtor should have a system of tools to give you access to homes to examine. I like to actually get together and look on the computer with my clients the first time to get to know what they like and share my expertise on what may be good. From there we should go see all the homes we can at first to get what I call a snapshot of the market. Many agents may not want to do this as it takes time. This is where patience is needed. If you want to get the most you have to know what the worst and best homes in that price range is so you'll know what a good deal is when you see it. After the first look you'll know if you found a home that you like and is a good deal. From there you either talk about writing an offer or if you didn't see something you like you start looking at the hotsheet for new homes as they come on. If you never see something you like you may have to get real about what you think you'll find at that price range. A good Realtor should be able to politely say if your going to find it or not. This is just an intro to the process. I hope you liked it and found it useful and I will be adding more posts and reports on my website soon. Thanks
Ross