LET'S FIND YOU A HOME

So, you want to buy a house—now what? Buying a home is an emotional, exciting, and also exhausting experience. You may also be wondering along the way—what am I missing? This is a common question. Count on me to assist you in this process from start to finish:

• Do some preliminary online searching. Check into what homes are selling for in the areas you’re interested in to give you an idea of what you’re looking for. This will help later on when communicating your wish list with your real estate agent.
• Take care of the budget. Use an online mortgage calculator to determine what your monthly mortgage payment would be if you were to purchase one of these homes you’ve found online. Make some additional estimates for utilities, property taxes and homeowner's insurance and see if this fits into your budget.
• Get pre-approved. To get pre-approved for a mortgage you’ll need to get some paperwork ready: pay stubs, W-2s, bank account statements, tax returns for the past two years, and credit lines, and names and addresses of your landlords for the past two years. Start with your current bank, but make sure you check out competitor banks as well – you might get a better mortgage loan rate by shopping around. Also, consider the amount your lender approves you for as a maximum – this is by no means what you should spend. Feel free to contact me to receive a list of a few great lenders my past clients have had success with.
• Contact me. With 20 years of experience and a passion for residential real estate, I'm here to transform your home-buying journey into an exciting adventure. Please contact me to set-up a time when we can connect on the buying process and how to receive your Home Buyer Guide.
• Look at homes. Be patient at this stage. I can show you a variety of homes to get your reaction on features I think you’ll like. Give me detailed feedback so I can show you homes that are perfectly suited to you. Sometimes, this process can take months or years—So be patient. Also, make sure you let friends and family know you’re looking for a new home--you may even find out about an amazing home before it hits the market.
• Make an offer. Once you’ve found your dream home, you may want to move quickly. I will guide you on a reasonable first offer to start negotiations based on market conditions. Also, make sure you consider earnest money, inspection costs and closing costs. Talk to me and your lender to get a better idea on an amount to budget for.
• Negotiate. I will be your advocate here and try to get you, their client as much as possible for your money while being fair and respectful to the seller and their real estate agent.
• An accepted offer. Pop the champagne! If you reach an agreement, you’ll make an earnest money deposit to show good-faith. Escrow is usually 30 days where the seller takes the house off the market with the contractual expectation that you’ll purchase the house - provided you don’t find any serious problems during the inspection.
• Do a home inspection. Even if the home appears to be flawless, there’s no substitute for having a professional inspector review the property for quality, safety, and general condition of your potential home. You don’t want to be surprised with a home that needs a lot of unexpected repairs. If the inspection reveals undisclosed serious defects, you can negotiate further to have the seller make repairs or discount the selling price. 
• Appraisal and Financing.   The mortgage lender will typically order an appraisal to determine the value of the home. I will educate you on your rights as a buyer and will offer you alternative routes to take if the appraisal should come back low in value. After the appraisal the lender will make sure all of your ducks are in a row. They will verify your credit and employment prior to closing, then deliver loan commitment.
• Closing. When your negotiations with the seller are successful, and the inspection came back clean, you should be ready to close. At your closing, you’ll spend a little over an hour signing lots of paperwork and then will be handed the keys.