Know the Ropes!

There have been many problems in real estate of late, but buying a home but there has never been a better time to buy a home.  With every negative situation, there is always a positive side and the positive side of real estate right now is our Buyer’s Market.  If you’ve been thinking about buying a home, especially for the first time, now is the time to be getting serious.  Tremendous values exist for the qualified home buyer, but it is essential that you “know the ropes” …. understand the home buying process before you begin. 

Buying a home for the first time, you will likely be surprised at the intricacies of the process and the bureaucracy involved.  With the ease of access to the “do-it-yourself internet”, it is easy to “get the horse before the cart” and find yourself confused and even stressed to the point of loosing a great opportunity.

The best advice for any first time buyer is to learn the process first.  To accomplish this, seek qualified, professional assistance.  Engage a Realtor® Buyer’s Representative that will listen to you, focus on your needs and take the time to educate you on the effective steps in the home buying process and then take you carefully and methodically through them resulting in the purchase of your new home and lifelong investment.  Often, First Time Home Buying Seminars/Workshops are available to help you get started and turn you on to many resources. Check with me or a local Buyers Representative for details on how to “learn the ropes” of the Buying Process.

• Your Personal Advocate /Coach
• Appropriate advice and analysis to aid decision making
• Property Preview and analysis
• Early access to new and proprietary lisitings
• Transaction Management and Negotiation Assistance
• Referrals and connections for home buying and settling  support services
• Full, comprehensive property history and information
• In-depth community information
• Complete worldwide referral to help your out-of-town search
• In-depth research
• E-mail Property Updates
• Fully escorted home tours

When you understand current market conditions, you are better able to position yourself as a buyer.  It helps to know if you are in a Seller's, Buyer's or Balanced market when preparing your offer. In today's buyer's market there is a lot more competition and buyers have plenty of choices.  In a sellers market the choices are less and buyers have less leverage in negotiating the selling package.  As your Realtor®, I will provide the resources you need to make decisions and facilitate the process to ensure the outcome you want in the shortest time possible.

Here are a few more of the steps you should take to find your perfect home:

Get Pre-Qualified/Pre-Approved for financing......
This is the second and critical step in home buying and will show you how much you can afford and what we can shop for.  This is accomplished by speaking with a financial counselor and establishing your maximum loan, qualifications and what monthly payments you will be comfortable with.  I can assist you in finding a financing counselor, if you do not currently have one.

Home Shopping 
Use every available method to locate a property that matches your search parameters.  This will include properties listed in the MLS, offered through other real estate companies, as well as unlisted properties.  Your Realtor® will disclose all known facts about the property that are available. When you find the home that meets your criteria, your Realtor® will assist you in writing an offer and act as a liaison between you and the seller to facilitate the transaction.

Learn the remaining steps!  Contact me for a FREE copy of the HOMEBUYER'S TOOLKIT..Ten Steps to Choosing and Purchasing Your Home. This is a very informative publication of the Real Estate Buyer's Agent Council and a must read for every home buyer.

Check our Valley Homes For Sale  and Advanced Home Search  to find your new Home!

Shoot yourself in the foot?

It’s human nature to want the “best deal”, the bargain of a lifetime!  This is especially true in our competitive society.   In our furry to get this bargain, we humans often put on the “blinders” and focus on the tree at the expense of the forest.  When buying a home in this buyers market, we’ve “gotta have that super deal!”  “Wait for the bottom”, as if we could really know where the bottom is until after it has past, and then buy it at a terrific price before it’s gone!  But too often, that is not enough and we end up shooting ourselves in the foot.

Let’s take a quick look at the forest.  Home values are at their lowest in years and we’ve finally decided it’s time to buy.  Some homes are listed at over 50% of what their original value was only a year ago. We find just the home we’ve dreamed of. Our Realtor® checks the market and the home we have chosen is priced right compared to others in the area. It’s a super deal! It’s time to buy.  Here’s where we tend to injure our foot. 

We’re only human and the fury for the best deal kicks in.  Suddenly the “super deal” is not quite enough.  This just might not be the best deal yet and we’re told “everything is negotiable” so we decide to squeeze out a little more to get that absolute best deal and offer even less than the low price asked for our dream home.  Sellers are often anxious and even stressed, so our offer is reluctantly accepted.  Now we’ve got a “super great deal”, right!  Well, our foot may be getting a little sore now.   

After a short time we realize that our completed sale has just driven down the home values once again in our neighborhood and the equity in our new home tumbled along with it.  Another new buyer down the street does the same as we did and home prices in the neighborhood drop even lower.  Suddenly our home is over valued for the neighborhood.  We’re “upside down”.  The cycle continues.  The forest is diseased.  Where will it end … the bottom?

Isn’t it time to consider the forest when we buy a home.  Sure, consider your needs and get a good deal, but what is the impact of your deal on your future, your neighbor’s future, the community and even the economy.  Let’s take responsibility for our impact on the forest and not shoot ourselves in the foot.