|
Home
Buying Tips
Preparation
Locating the Right Neighborhoods
Negotiating
FAQ
Preparation
1. Become pre-approved
for a home loan before you start looking. This will allow you to
determine your affordable price range and help you and your Realtor®
focus in on the right neighborhoods.
2. Save money
in your savings accounts rather than paying off debts. Make minimum
payments on existing debts, and don’t use credit cards or incur
new debts.
3. Make all
rent and loan payments on time. Pay bills every week to make sure
that all payments are current.
4. Make a list
of things that you want and don’t want in the home you want
to buy. This list will evolve as the home search process progresses.
It is a good idea to share this information with the Realtor®
that you work with.
 Return
to Top
Locating
the Right Neighborhoods
1. Using a map
of the area in which you work, draw a circle encompassing the area
that is within an acceptable commuting distance. Pick up some weekend
editions of the newspapers that serve the towns within the circle
and look under "Homes For Sale" in the classified section.
See if any of the homes listed match with your list of wants, and
if so, find a good Realtor® that works in or near the town where
acceptable homes exist. To find a good Realtor®, call or E-mail
me, or ask around, people you know who have recently bought homes,
or call and ask the manager of a local Title Company to recommend
a few good people to call.
2. Contact a
few Realtors® from among those recommended and interview them
to see if a personality match exists. It is very important that
you and your Realtor® have mutual trust and respect. Share with
the individual you select your list of wants and don’t wants,
and share that you have been pre-approved for a home loan with me.
3. When deciding
WHERE to buy, choose the best location you can find, not necessarily
the best home for the money. In the long run, location will make
a bigger difference, since you can change the home but not the location.
Return
to Top
Negotiating
1. When making
an offer on a home, recognize that your agent can't / won't typically
recommend an offering price below the asking price. If there are
no other offers on the table for the home on which you are interested
in making an offer, come up with an offering price based on what
you are willing to pay and what you think fair market value is.
Then, deduct a few thousand dollars to give you some negotiating
room.
2. You and your
agent should develop justification information for your offering
price by analyzing and writing down the addresses and selling prices
of comparable homes to present to the seller with your offer. Choose
properties with selling prices at or below your offering price as
evidence that your offer is fair. Using this technique, you will
achieve a more favorable result. One basic rule of negotiating for
buyers is "the lower you start, the lower you will end up."
3. When responding to a request
from the seller to "split the difference" in price or
on a large cost involved in the transaction, consider instead a
response closer to your original position than the seller's.
4. The most
important aspect of negotiating your purchase is planning your strategy
and tactics, and discussing your plan with your real estate
agent. Successful tactics can include:
a) requesting
initial concessions from the seller that you are willing to give
up
b) offering to adjust time frames more suitable to the needs of
the seller
c) patience
Market conditions
and personal circumstances can have a large impact on the results.
The result of a successful negotiation is a better outcome for all
concerned.
Return
to Top
 Back
to Buyer Resources
|
