Thinking About Buying a Home?

I Perform Three Critical Roles in Your Life When You Are Buying a Home:

1. I am your Consultant
2. I am your Negotiator
3. I am your Transaction Manager

As your Consultant, you hire me, to help you find the right loan officer to assess your financial situation and secure a mortgage preapproval. Once secured, and the loan officer indicates the acceptable price range with a pre-approval letter, I will help you pinpoint exactly what you are looking for in a new home: How big? What neighborhoods? Information on schools, etc.?

As your Negotiator, you hire me, to negotiate contracts on your behalf, to solely look out for your best interest and to treat your hard- earned money as though it were mine.

As your Transaction Manager, you hire me, to make sure all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed. Every transaction today requires hundreds of phone calls, texts and emails. Legally binding contracts require countless signatures and dates and calls for me to oversee professionals from several different industries to get you to the closing table as scheduled. Sometimes issues arise that are beyond my control and I will communicate with you quickly the situation and provide solutions.

The Buying Process

1. Consultation Phase:

Meet with Me: Our journey begins with either an online or in-office meeting to establish rapport, wants/needs and counseling about the buying process. You may not have purchased a home in several years or this may be your first time buying and you want assurances you will be working with a trusted advisor.

Paperwork: This is where you officially partner with me and Keller Williams Realty. The purchasing paperwork kicks off my team of professionals to legally and officially tell the world that you are looking for a home.

Mortgage Preapproval: I can recommend a mortgage lender to assess your financial situation and determine the price point from which to work. They will issue a preapproval letter to get your started.

Homefinder Account: After discussing the features and benefits, communities of interest, etc. I will create a Homefinder account for you (or you can do this on your own by signing up for Listing Alerts) and email you properties regularly of homes that meet most if not all of your criteria. When you see a home you like, you contact me to schedule an appointment to conduct a virtual or in-home visit, often referred to as “showings”.

2. Offer/Negotiation Stage:

Offer Presented: Once you decide to write an offer on a home, I will do a CMA (Comparable Market Analysis) to help determine the home’s value and what purchase price to offer, possession and closing dates, inspection timelines, closing costs, etc. I will prepare the purchase contract and other required documents, review them with you, get proper signatures from you (usually electronically) and then submit the offer to the listing agent.

Negotiations: Not all buyers and sellers are thinking the same when it comes to transferring legal ownership of a home. In the end, negotiations are a NORMAL part of the buyer’s journey and you can have confidence in my many years of experience to get you the best terms possible.

Counteroffer: As the buyer, you wait for the seller to respond to your purchase contract...usually within 24 hours. The seller can:

1. agree to your terms and conditions known as contract acceptance or
2. counteroffer with their own terms and conditions or
3. reject your offer outright. It is NORMAL, FAIR and REASONABLE for both buyers and sellers to counteroffer as they negotiate the terms of the sale that work for them.

Accepted Offer: At some point in the offer/negotiation/counter-offer process the buyer and seller agree with each other. Congratulations! This is called offer acceptance. All agreed upon terms must be written on the purchase contract and signed by all legal parties to the agreement.

3. Transaction Management Stage:

Inspections: In most real estate transactions the buyer will write in the purchase contract to have the property inspected. The inspection generally lasts up to 3 hours and is to protect the buyer from hidden issues that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Inspections of your home are a NORMAL part of the sales process.

Repairs: After the home inspections and/or appraisal review the report may reveal issues such as safety, structural, plumbing, electrical, etc. It is FAIR and REASONABLE for the buyer to ask that repairs be made, however, both buyer and seller must agree. We will discuss the repair requests but ultimately it is your decision to make.

Closing Process: During this period professionals from several industries such as contractors, mortgage, title, appraisers, agents, etc. are working through due diligence, paperwork, a final walk-thru, to legally transfer your home. Further negotiations may be needed to keep your journey on track. Years of experience help me to oversee this stage of the process to address problems, come up with solutions and minimize stress.

Closing/Celebration: This is when you meet to sign the legal papers to transfer ownership. This is also when you get to move forward with the life you want for yourself and your family members!