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In this series on
buying a home, I will be walking you through steps to successfully finding a
house that will be both a good investment as well as a place to call home.
Some of this information may seem self explanatory, but as an experienced
Real Estate broker, I know that in the excitement of buying a home, steps can be
overlooked, not explained well or plain forgotten.
I want your buying experience to be as stress free as possible.
I also want to point out some ways to save time and money using the web
as a home-search tool. I don’t need to tell you
that the market in Greater Seattle is red hot, but don’t let that scare you.
The best way to beat the market is to do your homework before you step
into the process. While a buyers market in real estate sounds good, it often
happens in times of recession and can be a risky proposition because the economy
is uncertain. Even dropping out of
the market and waiting for a cooling off time may end up pricing you out of the
market completely. Home prices in
this area are only going to rise. Puget
Sound is one of the nation’s quickest growing regions, and home prices are
just a reflection of the job growth. Anyone who owns a
home was once also a first-time homebuyer, and we have all experienced the fear,
uncertainty and elation that a home purchase can bring.
Buying a home is stressful and yet rewarding experiences.
As long as you a re prepared, you can mitigate most of the stress.
One of the best preparations for buying a home is an open discussion of
lifestyle and priorities for everyone involved. During these discussions, you
will become aware of how much of your income you are willing to commit to
housing, and what value you place on various types of activities.
But before you
march out and start shopping, take your lifestyle and your spending habits into
account. You should calculate your
housing expense to be about 25 –30% of your monthly take-home pay.
Housing and long-term debts should be no more than 40% of your monthly
pay. You can stretch this if you have significant savings or cash reserve.
If you spend too much of your income on a mortgage, you won’t have any
cushion to enjoy the house or take care of emergencies.
Balance your need for housing with other long-term goals, and make sure
that you communicate the amount you want to spend for a house with your agent
and lender. There are several
ways that you can harness the power of the Internet to make the process of
buying a home less stressful and quicker. Searching
for a home through a real estate website is probably the smartest things you can
do to familiarize yourself with the market.
Driving around the neighborhoods you like gives you an idea of the area,
but you often miss houses that don’t have signs or are located on adjacent
streets. A quick tour on a website
in the neighborhood can give you a basic sense of size of homes and relative
cost. Taking a quick look on
a real estate website is a great first step.
Asking the agent at an open house about other houses on the marketing and
the neighborhood highlights, including shopping and schools.
Agents know their neighborhoods where they sell and have good insight
into what it is like to live there. You have gotten a
quick view of what is on the market, now your next step is finding a real estate
agent. You always want to have a
professional at your side during a home-buying process, representing your
interests. An agent will be there
to handle the transaction, assist you in making an appropriate offer, take over
any tough negotiations, handle any problems that may arise and coordinate all of
the necessary paperwork and players in the process of buying a home Your real estate
agent will be there to provide personalized service, helping you buy a home that
fits both your lifestyle and your budget and representing you in all aspects of
the purchase. An agent is your
advocate, a trusted advisor, who is an expert in the complicated forms,
negotiations and financing, and can give you information about the community and
the marketplace. Agents also have
connections with reputable mortgage lenders, title companies and other real
estate services, to whom they can refer you. And just like
finding any other type of professional, you should ask around before hiring an
agent. Quizzing friends and
associates for names of their real estate agents is a great way to start.
A good fit between you and your agent can result in you making a
satisfactory home purchase. Ask the reference what they liked about that particular
realtor - would they hire them again, did the agent listen to the reference’s
wants and requirements? To see if a
particular agent fits your needs, call them.
Ask them how familiar they are with the particular area that you are
interested in, what strategies they would use to find you a home and how they
would win a bidding war for a house (this is especially important during the
current market situation) and how tech-savvy they are.
A tech-savvy agent has a distinct advantage
- they can be contacted through email, they have more information
resources than the non-tech savvy agent, what additional information they have
is instant and they can steer you to other sites on the web to help you in your
home buying research. I know that this
sounds complicated and time-consuming, but you shouldn’t pick any professional
out of the yellow pages without references.
A good agent will be able to translate your dreams into reality, and help
you through the process. Good house hunting! |
